After it’s release earlier this week, I have been using the Meebo iPhone app and testing it out. I actually stopped using IM clients about 4 years ago when I got a full-time job.

However, I’ve since had a desire to use Facebook Chat on the go, using Facebook’s iPhone app, but that was no good because the open had to be open in order for you to remain signed in to chat.

Meebo however keeps you logged in to all your IM networks (and it supports dozens by the way) and then gives you push notifications whenever someone IMs you. I’ve been using it for a few days now and have found it to be very quick and responsive, both with notifications and real-time chatting.

It’s a great client for IM on the go and the best part of it all is the price – gratis.

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Some months ago, Apple rejected Google’s app for Google Voice, apparently nudged by AT&T to stop customers using Google’s free VOIP phone service, thus forcing them to continue to use their wireless phone plans.

Google then abandoned plans to make a specific iPhone app, instead opting to produce a web app, which can be accessed from any mobile device.

They released the updated web app a couple of weeks ago and they truly have done a fantastic job.

It looks like an app, is easy to navigate, has full functionality including SMS, calls, contact, settings and voicemail and even has a keypad to make a call directly from the web app.

While Google Voice is still in invitation only mode, those lucky enough to have the service can start enjoying Google Voice properly on their iPhones by going to the web app address. You should save the address to your home screen for instant access.

Check out the following screenshots.

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iVideoCamera is the first iPhone app that I’m aware that of that brings iPhone 3GS style video recording to older models of the iPhone.

In the past few weeks, there have been a flurry of apps that perform video recording, such as Qik, however, they typically involved uploading the videos to their servers or keeping local copies within the app. Where iVideoCamera differs is that you can export the video to your camera roll, as if the iPhone had recorded it natively, as it does in the 3GS model.

This then allows you options such as trimming and sharing. And speaking of sharing, the app has the ability to publish your videos on the most popular video sharing websites such as Facebook, YouTube, 12seconds.tv and Twitter.

While the app isn’t free, it’s just $0.99 – nothing to complain about given how awesome the app is. Check it out.

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The recent news of the “crotchbomber” trying to blow up a Trans-Atlantic flight bound for the States has reignited my grievances with the Transportation Security Administration.

TSA was formed after the atrocities of September 11, 2001. It was an action that forever changed how air travel operated. We’ve seen our identification requirements bolstered, the carriage of liquids onboard is very limited and you have to take off half your clothes before you’ll ever be allowed within half a mile of an aeroplane.

However, all of these changes have been direct restrictions on the exact actions terrorists took in mounting an attack on aircraft. For example, following the attempt of the shoe bomber to blow up a plane, we now have to take off our shoes going through security to make sure that we aren’t carrying a bomb in them and as a result of the attempt to blow up 8 Trans-Atlantic flights bound for the US using bombs made of liquids, we now can not carry liquids onboard.

Following the attempt of the crotchbomber to blow up a plane by lighting explosives in his crotch on fire on approach for landing, we’re bow being restricted from moving in the cabin during the last hour of flight and from having anything in our lap.

Doesn’t this seem a bit strange to you?it seems to me that several times since TSA was formed, terrorists have been able to board flights and make attempts to cause destruction. And every time, all TSA can do is stop us from doing what they did and give Americans the false pretense that they’ve for everything under control.

The fact of the matter is that terrorists continue to find ways to get explosives on board and TSA continues to let them on board. Every time an incident happens, TSA’s thoughtless reaction is to ban the activity that permitted the event to occur.

As far as I can remember, TSA haven’t actually stopped anyone from taking explosives on board an aircraft. All they’ve done is made flying less enjoyable, more arduous, more expensive and more time-consuming.

Even if they had foiled the few terrorist attacks there have been, the lives saved would have been in the hundreds at a maximum. Compare that to the colossal cost of TSA’s operations and it just doesn’t make much sense. If even a small portion of that money was spent on improving accident blackspots on America’s roads, more lives would be saved in a year than TSA would ever save.

It just doesn’t make economical, or practical sense. The formation, operation and rule-setting of TSA are knee-jerk reactions to successful attempts by terrorists to attack the freedoms that Americans so mindlessly and steadfastly protect. Ironically, in doing so of course, they give away more freedom every day, not least in how we go about getting on board planes and what we’re allowed to do when there.

We are but a few steps from being sedated and mannacled in our seats when we get onboard a plane. Some serious reconsideration is needed to establish what TSA is for and how best to ensure a safe travelling environment for everyone, because the current system is laughable, ineffective and immensely expensive.

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Following up from my earlier post, where I described how you could watch BBC iPlayer (or any geo-restricted content for that matter) from outside the UK. The process involved using Firefox and a plugin called FoxyProxy.

Since then, I have taken a liking to Google Chrome as my web browser, because it is so much faster than anything else out there. However, until recently, it didn’t have extensions, the very function which allows you to use FoxyProxy on Firefox.

Now that’s all changed however and Chrome has opened up its doors to extensions.

It took a bit of searching and configuring, but I’ve now found the perfect solution for getting BBC iPlayer up and running on Google Chrome, from outside the UK.

In order to do this, follow the first four steps on my earlier blog post, which will lay the foundations for being able to use the Tor network to circumvent geo-restrictions.

Then we need to tailor it for use with Chrome. In order to do this, ensure you have the latest version of Chrome running on your machine. Once you do, install the Switchy extension.

After this, you need to configure Switchy. Do this by going to your Extensions page (select Extensions from the Tools menu in the top right hand corner of your window).

Once you select Options for Switchy, you will see the following window.

Now, create a new profile and perform the following steps:

1. Label the Profile “BBC” or similar

2. Uncheck the “Use same proxy server for all protocols” box.

3. Delete the contents of all remaining boxes, except the Profile name.

4. Under Manual Configuration, type 127.0.0.1 by SOCKS proxy and enter port 9050.

5. Save it. Now whenever you head over to iPlayer, just ensure you start up Vidalia (Tor) first and then switch your proxy profile over to BBC, using the icon shown below. Now everything should be filtered through Tor and you’ll be able to watch the iPlayer as if you were in the UK.

Bear in mind that you will want to remove your proxy connection when surfing other websites. The developer of Switchy has said that a future release of the extension will include URL patterns, meaning that as soon as you visit a BBC website, it will use the BBC profile and other websites will use your standard internet connection.

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For movie fans and couch potatoes, there has been one online location that has always been the first place to look when looking for film information such as cast, plot and photos – IMDB (Internet Movie Database).

Up until now, there has been little in the way of an iPhone offering that could provide the same level of information as imdb.com. I had previously used the Movie Star app which pulled select data from
IMDB, but it wasn’t well presented and there was a lot missing.

Now, IMDB have finally produced their own iPhone app, which gives you all the information that you can throw a stick at, presented in a familiar and easy-to-use format. If you frequent imdb.com, you should download this now.

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When I first moved to the States from England three years ago, one of my first tasks was to ensure I had a viable way of calling my friends and family back home. It was around the time that Vonage was becoming really popular and unlimited calling within the US and back to the UK (among other places) for $24.95/month seemed like a great deal. And it was. It piggy-backed on your Internet connection, so there were monthly line service fees as there was with a conventional home phone.

So we’ve been using Vonage without issue for the past three years. They’re a great company, who had a great idea and really capitalized on it and provide a good service.

However, that was 2006. It’s now 2009 and we’ve seen, among other things, the advent of Google Voice. The idea behind Google Voice is to provide you with a single phone number (which you can choose yourself) and for it to act as a hub if you will, which takes incoming calls and routes them to all your existing phones (such as home, work, mobile) for you to pickup. Among other advantages is the ability to provide a single number to everyone, without the need to distinguish between friends, family or clients, as you can set up rules, which dictate how the call is handled depending on who calls you.

Since Google Voice is a Voice Over IP (VOIP) based system, it’s overheads are very low and in turn, not limited geographically. As such, I can call anyone in the world, at fairly decent rates. For instance, the main one I care about is calls to the UK – Calls to landlines are two cents a minute or 19 cents a minute to mobiles: even if I called home for an hour a week every week, that would cost less than $5 a month. Compare that to the $32 Vonage bill I have every month and it’s a no-brainer.

In an age where the mobile is king, usage of landlines is dwindling, to the point where many, myself included, are ditching their landlines in favour of using their mobile minutes.

With such services as Google Voice around, there’s now little excuse to keep a landline, even if you have a business / call internationally / spend all day at home. Makes sense to me.

Google Voice is still by invitation only. If you know someone who has GV, ask for an invitation, or request one directly from Google.

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This coming Christmas will be my fourth Christmas here in Florida. As we move into December, I can’t help but notice that despite Radio 1 DJs starting to churn out a couple of Christmas songs, it just does not feel like Christmas to me.

I’ve decided there may be several reasons: the first of which is just that I’ve been working so hard lately, that I’ve next to no time to do anything but work and sleep.

The second reason is that for the very reason Florida is such a popular winter destination, it takes away somewhat from the Christmas feel. The traditional Christmas scene features snow, not sun and sand.

Lastly, and I think perhaps the most likely reason, is that despite all the Christmas “crap” being in stores for months now, Christmas to me is all about walking home on a damp evening after work, since the sun set at 4pm, kicking off your clothes at work, turning on the Christmas lights and enjoying living by firelight and “fairylight”. On top of that, there’s also the merriment that goes with Christmas, something that in my opinion is harder to come by in America: it’s just so corporate here, that it’s all about ensuring you have the most outlandish display of lights on your street, buying gifts for anyone who forms any part of your life and churning out the printed and unsigned Christmas photo cards, because no one has the energy to write out a little note to those that matter to them.

Aside from the near denial that Christmas even exists any more (don’t forget to put up your “Dream Tree” – FTW?), it just seems that it’s all about ensuring you fulfill your capitalist requirements before realizing that it’s more about relaxing and enjoying the company of family and friends, not because you have to, but because you want to.

This post is apparently so unique that there are no related posts.

Most people wouldn’t lambast you if you made the statement that America is a land of polar opposites.

It’s a place where the world’s wealthiest people live alongside those who work three jobs and still can’t afford their bills. It’s a place where you can get the finest education in the world, but where the brightest students can also miss out on every opportunity. It’s a country where racism rages, yet where also the Statue of Liberty stands with open arms. It’s got one of the most diverse social make-ups on the planet, yet social integration is still so unheard of.

I bring this up largely because of the week I’ve had and how I reacted to it and how I could have reacted to it.

I truly had the worst week at work this past week. I worked late every night, fixing other people’s problems and I had to work tirelessly to please an unpleasable client. It just drained me and I daren’t even answer my phone or look at my email for fear of what the next problem could possibly be.

At the end of it all, I looked back over everything that had happened and saw that I was in fact still alive, my house was still standing, I still had my loving wife by my side and I still had pennies in my wallet. All in all, despite the truly crappy week I had, I did still have everything that I needed to navigate this life comfortably and happily.

I could have gone home and spent hours (or days) bitching about how awful my day/clients/people/my job was, but I decided to cut it off there. By leaving it behind, and coming to the realisation that I did still have everything that meant anything to me, I was transformed into a state of euphoria. The joy of making the choice to leave behind your woes and choose life instead, is awesome.

So last night I was on a high after making such a choice, and had a great night in the company of some awesome people. Today, I was unfortunate enough to have to work again owing to a flailing schedule. While there, I kept my bounce in my step and was paid a very nice compliment by a shopkeeper who told me that I had a very nice smile and I just need to keep smiling. This of course just made me smile even more and made the spring in my step even stronger.

I bring this up because I largely attribute my attitude to living in America. It is a land of polar opposites – a place which breeds and feeds off of negativity, but also a place where happiness and joy are fostered, encouraged and praised. Back in England, if you walk around smiling, people assume there is something wrong with you. There’s just a very small range of emotions that are acceptable in society and joy is not one of them.

I think if I was still living in the UK, given this same crappy week at work, I probably would have succumbed and moped around. However, I made the choice to be happy, not least because I could be and there are people here who encourage such behavior. In a world (country) of such misery, you can’t help but wish to be that shining light that goes against the grain, because you can and because you want to.

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This posted was written for Blog Action Day 2009.

There are many issues which society tends to agree on one way or another – for example, murder is wrong and charity is good. However, there are also a few controversial issues which have divided families, communities, nations, religions and friends for hundreds of years and will continue to divide people. Issues falling under this category that come to mind are euthanasia, abortion and government welfare. Climate change is another such issue.

Over the past 50 years or so, scientists have commented on the possibility that our actions here on Earth are resulting in an invisible cloud of gas surrounding the Earth, which in turn is not allowing heat to escape, much like a greenhouse (hence the name, greenhouse gases). I’m not here to comment on the accuracy or validity of this research as doing so would be futile – instead, I want to encourage people to take a new approach. Forget what you know thus far – block out everything you’ve already been told or convinced yourself of. Just approach this with an open mind.

For thousands of years, man lived without oil, electricity or industry. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that inventions and discoveries such as oil and electricity allowed man to build machines that could not be built before and perform tasks that were previously inconceivable. It resulted in the advent of personal automobiles, residential electricity supply, personal computers, the internet and mass-produced products and food.

The advance of technology has been a snowball effect – the very first inventions, such as electricity, allowed machines to be built that didn’t require kinetic energy from man or animal. These machines were then able to produce other products, which further facilitated the advance of technology – the internet could not exist if it weren’t first for the invention of electricity, electronic components, monitors and personal computers.

The trouble is that the industrial revolution came to light without regard for where the resources required to power the revolution came from or how much of it there was. Until recently, no one really paid attention. The fact is that electricity as we know it is produced by a few different methods, most of which involve the combustion (destruction) of natural resources such as coal and oil.

We now know that our daily consumption of these resources is far in excess of the Earth’s ability to reproduce them (this isn’t in question). Regardless of what people think the burning of these resources is doing to the Earth, the fact remains that there will come a time (estimates vary between about 20 and 50 years) when these resources are going to become so scarce that it will be astronomically expensive to farm them and thus, will no longer be economical. So we’re having to rethink the way we get power. There has been a big push in the last two decades for more renewable energy sources to produce our electricity and power our cars and it’s because those that produce the machines that we need power for are beginning to realise that before long, their consumers are not going to be able to use their products.

Even if you’re not convinced that the combustion of fuels is causing the Earth to heat up, recognise that before long, this isn’t even going to be an option and help conserve the precious resources that we do have, while trying to find better ways of tapping into other more abundant resources that don’t have the same effect, such as wind, tidal, solar and geothermal.

And lastly, for a long time, I’ve wanted to write a little commentary about a little phrase that has become popular in the last year or so: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This phrase, while intended to be an encouragement to help people help the environment, is actually just simple economic common sense – first of all, reduce what you use: if you don’t need the product in the first place, then just don’t buy/use it. Then demand for the product will go down and there will be much less waste. Secondly, reuse. If not using the product is simply not an option, then find ways to reuse the product once you’re finished with it – so, if you need (want) a new couch, try and give your old one away to someone who can reuse it, instead of allowing it to rot in a landfill. And lastly, if you have to use it and you can find a good second use for the product, recycle it and make it into another new product altogether so that the need for new natural resources is reduced, allowing the Earth to replenish the resources it produces. It just seems to make sense to me. Doing it any other way is just wasteful.

Reconsider why you feel the way you do about climate change and see if there are any changes you could make to reduce your dependence on natural resources.

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As I write this, I’m currently in seat 10H on my flight back to the States (ah, the wonders of the iPhone). I’m on my way back to Tampa after spending six days back home in Brighton to see my brother tie the knot. He and his new bride did an awesome job in ensuring everything was taken care of for the big day and they had a lot of creative ideas to bring a bit of modern flare to a traditional wedding. (Thanks Andy and Sam).

The last time I was home was about 18 months ago, when I had been in the States just 18 months and life was still very much up in the air. Now everything has settled down a little more and we’re able to just enjoy life and take note of things going on. It’s no secret that I’m probably more fond of the UK than the States, but on this trip, I really noticed a lot more of the smaller things that make me proud to be British – the little societal nuances and smaller details of the environment that surrounds us that make British people more thoughtful, creative and joyful. I’ll give you a few examples:

Brits really know how to make the most of little space. Britain is an ancient society and as such, most of it was built before there were ever dedicated roads for horses and carts, let alone motorised vehicles such as cars. So when cities were built, they were designed to have everything in close proximity, such that you could walk everywhere. As such, there’s never been much room for expansion, so engineers have had to be clever about reuse of space, mixed development and efficiency. This is one of the principal reasons that British engineers are so well renowned (and part of the reason that I’m so proud to be one). One such example of good use of space is a recent redevelopment of an area of Brighton, centred around a new city library. Outside the library is a public square, which is frequently used for events and concerts for evening entertainment. Another part of the devlopment was mixed-use buildings, such as apartment blocks with restaurants and shops on the ground floor, which encourages local economies and communities as well as reducing dependence on cars. All this was built in one of Brighton’s oldest areas (North Laine) where the roads are as wide as a single vehicle.

Brits have much more concern for the environment. In every aspect of everyday life in the UK, you will notice that environmental action is a part of everyones daily routine (well, moreso in the younger generations). The thought of not recycling is unthinkable and local government normally picks your recycling up curbside. You’re given two bins of equal size for your house – one for trash and one for recycling. The next initiative is to start charging for rubbish collection while ensuring that recycling is a free service, a huge step in the right direction in my opinion. This is compared to where I live in Florida, where I’m one of the few people I know who recycle and I have to separate out my own recycling and drive it to the nearest recycling centre three miles away.

It’s also a lot more common these days to see individual wind turbines on peoples roofs to power their house with free electricity. Not only that, but any excess electricity they produce can be sold back to the National Grid for a profit. Seems like a win-win-win to me.

Another way of life that more and more people are adopting is the cultivation of your own food – aside from being as-good-as-free to produce, it’s also more satisfying growing your own food, more self-sufficient, far more flavoursome and reduces nutrient loading of surface waters. The practice is becoming so popular in fact that once-overgrown and forgotten allotments are now hard to come by.

I could go on and on listing ways in which the British are more environmentally-minded, but the fact is that if you just spent a few days there, it would soon be pretty evident just how different attitudes are.

Brits don’t complain nearly as much. One of my chief complaints about Americans is that they just complain when everything doesn’t run perfectly. If they can’t have everything go their way, they’re prepared to grumble, complain, fight and even sue to get the issue resolved.

In England, we’re much more accepting of fault: I think there’s a corporate acceptance that things rarely go exactly to plan and that everyone make mistakes, so we just deal with it and move on instead of commanding that it be rectified, and I would say we’re happier because of it – I know Brits don’t exactly have a reputation of walking around with huge smiles, but I’m sure we’re happier on the inside: more content with life and less likely to let insignificant things get to us. I’m convinced that’s why Brits aren’t as objective to some of our cold and wet weather, because it just doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. (P.S. The British climate is rarely as bad as Americans make it out to be).

I’ve just committed all this to paper (or hard drive in this case) because I wanted to record the fact that there’s more reason than ever before to be proud to be British. While I’ve been in the States, I’ve allowed skepticism to creep in and focus on some of the things going wrong in Britain, but you know what, the UK is an amazing place to live and Brits should hold their head high and be proud of who they are. I’m going to do a better job of that, starting now.

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I’ve been following this story over the past few days and it just bothers me how Corporate America still has ultimate rule.

I’m not so concerned about the privacy issues. Americans are so worries about defending their civil rights, when the reality is, they’ve already given so many of them away, not least thanks to the Patriot Act. Bottom line is, email is insecure and is relying on many third parties to keep your data secure – if you’re that worried about keeping your data secure, you should be writing a letter.

My biggest concern is that a corporate bank (Rocky Mountain Bank) made the stupid mistake of transmitting personal information (SSNs, names, values of loans) of 1300 of its customers over insecure channels (email) and then crying like a baby and pleading with a judge to force the email provider (GMail) to reveal the identity of the receiving user. Google rightly told them where to shove it, but the judge ridiculously agreed that Google should reveal who the recipient of this sensitive information is.

The very fact that a bank (an institution not too popular right now anyway) can mess up so fantastically and then go to a judge to try and clear up their mess at the expense of common decency and an innocent email user’s privacy is outrageous and a worrying sign that Corporate America still has the last say in everything.

In the meantime I’d encourage customers of Rocky Mountain Bank to seriously reconsider whether they’re content banking with a bank that seems happy to send all their personal information over email. And furthermore to remind others that this is likely not an isolated case.

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For a number of years now, my wife and I have decided that we really don’t want children of our own. There’s plenty of reasons, but then, that’s the point of this post.

I plan to periodically add a new reason to the end of the list, expanding this list frequently. When I do so, I’ll write a tweet with the new reason and a link to this post. If you like it and would like to hear the new reasons as I write them down, then follow me on Twitter. Of course, I’d love to hear your own reasons, so either leave a comment, or hit me up on Twitter.

1. There is no sex after children, just interruptions and excuses.

2. Children’s clothes are a twentieth of the size of adult clothes, but just as expensive.

3. You start a second job as a taxi service, without the benefit of getting paid.

4. The only time children don’t smell is the 10 minutes after their bath

5. Children think it’s funny to hit people where the doesn’t shine. Not cool

6. You won’t have a good night’s sleep for 20 years

7. Kids don’t appreciate good food – they think McDonald’s is the best thing going

8. Children need to wear diapers. And that’s just nasty, whichever way you look at it

9. Children eat everything they find including crayons, batteries, cat litter and light bulbs

10. Children are ungrateful for everything you do – years of work for nothing

11. Children run away any time they’re not tethered and think it’s hilarious

12. Children on planes – enough said

13. You have to pretend to take an interest in their activities, even when they’re crap

14. I’ve never given birth, but I can’t imagine that’s too fun

15. You have to be careful of everything you say and do, because they duplicate all you do

16. The world’s already overpopulated and over-farmed. One less will help

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Flickr has just launched it’s very own Flickr app for the iPhone. It’s been a long time coming, but after the recent news that the iPhone is now the most popular camera used on the Flickr website, it seemed the next sensible move.

There are plenty of great apps out there that take advantage of Flickr’s extensive APIs and I have to say that the official Flickr app is not going to replace my Flickr app of choice (Mobile Fotos) because it doesn’t have nearly the feature range that Mobile Fotos does, but I am going to keep it around because I believe that over time the additional deatures will come and furthermore, they have made a solid, well-thought out and beautifully crafted app: As soon as you open the app, you are greeted with gliding images of your contact’s recent uploads which is very swish and the way you can navigate around your own images, sets and tags beats the competition.

It’s got a long way to go to be the best Flickr app out there, but it’s certainly made a solid start.

Read more over at Mashable’s more extensive write-up

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For as long as I can remember, I have always arranged and organised my life in my head: I’ve never owned a diary, a PDA and never needed to write things down – I could just recall things from memory.

However, over the past few years I’ve noticed that skill deteriorating and decided I needed something to better organise my life so I could get things done.

Once I got my iPhone, it seemed like I had the perfect tool for doing this. I tried numerous apps aimed at organising my life, including Remember The Milk, ToodleDo and Saisuke. Each time, I’d be really gung-ho at the start, but the tools would lack the exact feature set that I needed to make organising my life possible, efficient and easy.

I refused to give up though, knowing that something needed to change. Then I read about a book by David Allen called “Getting Things Done”. Evidently, this has revolutionised the thinking of Generation Y and the millennials and enabled them to better organise their lives and focus on “Getting Things Done”. There are a number of tools, books and diaries that incorporate these ideas now, and iPhone apps are no exception.

So in my research, I read about an app called Todo, by a company called Appigo. The app wasn’t cheap, costing me $10 when I bought it, but I knew I needed to give it a go after all the good reviews I read. And I’m ever thankful that I did.

The features and design make it incredibly easy to write down things that need to be done, prioritise them and be reminded of them. These features include push notifications to remind you of tasks a set time before they’re due, a focus list for viewing just your most important items, repeat tasks, subtasks, projects, attaching web addresses, contacts and phone numbers to a task and so much more.

This app has helped me get my life in order where other apps just fell short of the mark. Thanks Todo!

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3. Twittelator beats Tweetie and Becomes my New Default iPhone Twitter App

I have been championing Tweetie as an iPhone Twitter app since I first laid my two thumbs on it. And it has served me well. I think it’s a really well thought out, well-designed and well-integrated app. However, there were a couple of things about that annoyed me and it’s bothered me that they not yet added these features in, nor have I even seen an update for the app in months. I wonder whether they’re still working on it.

What annoyed me about it was that when I went to ReTweet something, the only format it knows is to stick the (via @username) tag on the end of the tweet. My preferred format is RT @username ahead of the tweet. The other thing was that the icons along the bottom of the screen (such as mentions and DMs) didn’t have an icon badge to show when you had new items under each category, so I would frequently miss new mentions because I forgot to check that tab.

So I had a bit of a look around. I checked out Twitterfon, but I didn’t like it at all. Twittelator was my next choice, though I have to admit I was put off a little by the price ($4.99 at present). However, having seen the incredible array of features and the masses of good reviews, I had to try it for myself. I don’t think it’s as good looking as Tweetie, but that’s about where the cons end.

All the reasons above are just some of the great features that put Twittelator ahead of Tweetie, but after installing the app, I found there was so much more to it that I didn’t even realise. It keeps your recent hashtags and users in easy-to-reach lists for quick addition to tweets, it has a huge range of emojis to include in your tweets, you can scroll through your friends tweets by tapping once at the top of the screen and head all the way to the top with a double tap… the list really is excessive to describe here, but just trust me that if you want a little more from your Twitter app, Tweetie is a good bet, but Twittelator Pro is hands down the best out there.

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Have you ever heard of Babcock Ranch, Florida? Nor had I until today. Even though it’s geographically just a couple of hours from where I live, the small town outside of Fort Myers is known for… well, nothing.

But that all changed this week when it came to light that the City had contracted with Florida Power & Light to provide 100% of the city’s power using only solar power and in doing so, becoming the first city in the world to run on nothing but the sun.

Not only this, but they’re also implementing plans for sustainable water treatment and delivery, green building technqiues, stations for charging electric cars and a dense, urban community which is more pedestrian-friendly.

Pending state approval, work on the world’s largest photovoltaic plant will start later this year, while construction of the city centre will commence next year.

Let’s hope all goes well and that Babcock Ranch is the first of many cities to go down this road.

For more information, check out this article, or go to the City of Babcock Ranch website.

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Seriously. Who would take financial advice from a government that has a sustained history of borrowing more money than it brings in?

Fairy consistently for the past forty years, the US government has spent more every year than they pull in, resulting in a mounting debt that is now more than $11 trillion dollars (think about it, that’s $11,000,000,000,000). In fact every day the US is about $4 billion dollars more in debt than the day before. Pretty scary numbers.

So why on Earth would anyone take any kind of financial advice from a government that thinks only of the next four years and how much money they can blow in that timeframe? Until the American people get a reality check and realise that they can’t<\em> have everything they want, their government is going to continue to spend as they command, while still telling their citizens to be mindful of their spending.

Very much a case of “do as I say, not as I do”.

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