The launch of the new iPhone 5 and the accompanying iOS6 has been shouted loudly in recent weeks. As an iPhone 4S user, last night I spent two hours updating my phone to the new operating system. Among the things it promises are a whole new mapping app and the ability to perform local services searches that have previously only been available in the US.
The deficiencies of the new system are already becoming apparent - such as the town of Luton being relocated wholesale to Devon. But how does the new system fare for someone living in a small, out of the way city like Lincoln. Let's find out...
Ever one for serious activities, I thought I'd start out with the basics and ask it where my nearest Starbucks was (not that that particular brand of coffee is my favourite, I just thought it was a question it would surely get right). Sadly, despite there being THREE Starbucks in Lincoln, it seems that I actually have to travel to Louth to get a cuppa and a muffin.
Not to be accused of brand bias, I tried some more. Caffe Nero? Nope - have to go to Huddersfield. Costa? A shorter trip to Gainsborough is in order it seems. What about some great local independent coffee like Coffee Aroma? Sorry, never heard of it, guv.
OK, having failed to get a coffee, let's try something more cultural. A search in the mapping app for 'lincoln museum' should surely bring up a number of options. After all, Lincoln is well served, with both The Collection and the Museum of Lincolnshire Life offering local museumey goodness. Not according to the iPhone though. Apparently the Queen's Royal Lancers have a museum in Lincoln, though. Not only that, but they can be found in a Spar shop at the bottom of the High Street! Odd, I've worked in museums in Lincoln for ten years, but somehow never been to the Spar military museum...
Even specific searches are pretty poor, with 'the collection' returning a shop at the top of town, that even the mapping app is confused over the name of!
So far, so bad. Let's get sporty. Will the mighty Lincoln City FC be famous enough to feature in Apple's world? Thankfully yes, with a pin dropped right onto the centre spot of our beloved 12th Imp Sincil Bank Stadium.
With this glorious success under our belts, lets try to buy some electronics. Maybe go to PC World (on Tritton Road, for those that don't already know). No, apparently Doncaster hosts our local store (or, according to Apple, 'Duncaster' - they haven't even been able to spell the name right!). Bizarrely, it knows where the Lincoln Comet store is, but not the Curry's store only a few yards away, despite them being owned by the same company. Shopping at Curry's means once again going to Louth. At least you can get a coffee while you're there...
So, with only the Football ground and Comet successfully located in this unscientific little test, the only conclusion can be that Apple needs to get its act together quickly, or its new mapping will be useless to anybody outside of the big cities. At the minute, I certainly won't trust it when I'm out travelling.
Check out this Tumblr page for more worldwide Apple mapping madness.
Like many people with an interest in photography and an iPhone, I have a bit of a love affair with Instagram. The combination of easy photo editing and easy socialising is a great combination - especially when you're walking around with such a good camera in your pocket 24/7. Of course, Instagram has had a tendency recently to become overrun with 'celebrities' getting thousands of likes for very average photos and soft porn but it is still possible to avoid such nonsense and find a great number of very normal people across the world taking and sharing some very cool and innovative photos.
The issue of editing photos is an interesting one, as I've never been one to overly doctor my images. However, the fun thing about Instagram is that pretty much EVERY image is edited to some degree and everyone knows it, so its a chance to have a bit of fun and create some photo based art without feeling like you're conning anyone.
So, as its not too easy to see Instagram images on the web, I thought I'd post a selection of my favourite Instagram images here, in no particular order.
Following on from our trip last month to see the Olympics (see my blog post here), my wife and I have just spent two days enjoying some events during the final weekend of the Paralympics, which we were lucky enough to get tickets for at the first time of asking.
We were especially pleased that our events across both Games enabled us to experience a range of venues, both on and off the main Olympic Park. So here's what we saw...
Swimming
We spent the Friday evening at the swimming pool (well, Aquatic Centre if you're being posh) and the evening immediately set a trend for our Paralympic sessions - seeing China win a lot of medals. We actually had a rather personal reason for wanting to see the swimming, which is that my father in law is a double Paralympic swimming medallist.
Our seats were, of course, way up in the Gods, and I struggle to think of a time when I've climbed more flights of stairs in one go. People were genuinely gasping for air at the top, and bottles of water intended to last the whole evening were vanishing in one gulp on a very hot and humid evening.
One advantage of the swimming is that there is a very quick turnaround of races interspersed with medal ceremonies so there is little time to get bored. We saw a succession of races with some British and Chinese interest, and it's fair to say that my wife was far the happier with her country's haul at the end of the night!
Just when it seemed that team GB would end the night without any reward, the Women's 4x100m relay team, languishing in 5th at the halfway point, put on a storming finish to take silver on the line. Cake? Iced.
Table Tennis
Our busy Saturday began with an early morning trip across London (we were staying with friends in the north) to the southwest and the Excel centre. The setup was quite good - as we had tickets specifically for the table tennis we had good seats and didn't have to queue, but our tickets also allowed us to get into other events on that day - we just had to join in with the masses and hope to get a seat before they all went.
Table tennis is a sport we both enjoy playing so it was fascinating to see it played at a top level, and the quality of play on show made it easy to forget that the competitors were physically impaired. Naturally, the two team finals we saw ended with China winning both golds...
Wheelchair Fencing
This event was something of a surprise, as we used the advantage of the aforementioned open ticket to pay a quick visit to this fascinating sport. Team GB were actually playing, but because of the layout of the arena we could hardly follow any of that match, and watched a bit of Russia v Ukraine instead. We actually didn't have long before we had to travel to our next venue, but even so it was nice to be able to see a few bouts and appreciate the skill and agility on show.
Wheelchair Basketball
One of the most popular events of all, the basketball was being held at the 'North Greenwich Arena' - otherwise known as the O2. We decided to use the Emirates Skyline cable cars to cross the river (despite the enormous queues and farcical ticketing system), which, although we'll probably never use it again, it's nice to say we have.
The basketball session consisted of two matches - the bronze medal (GB versus USA) and gold medal (Australia v Canada) matches.
Despite a valiant comeback early in the second half, the USA ultimately turned GB over relatively easily, though the crowd gave some noisy encouragement.
In the final, it was clear to see why Australia and Canada were there, as their movement and shooting were first rate and the match was easy to get caught up in, even as a neutral. I confess to not being a fan of 'normal' basketball in the slightest, but something about the wheelchair version of the game makes it a better spectator sport. It was a close game in which Australia had led early on but Canada came good at the end to claim the gold.
So there it is - four more sports in three more venues to complete our London 2012 experience. It meant a lot of travelling and some very late nights, but being able to say 'I was there' at some key events is priceless, and something we'll always treasure.
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