I’ve recently made the jump back to Apple with a new MacBook Pro 15″.  After a decade of Windows and IBM, I’m firmly back in Steve Jobs’ camp and loving the experience.  I’m fairly certain I’ll never go back - for personal use anyway.

I’m using Chrome for my browser, Gmail for email although routing some email via Entourage as a trial, sticking with Microsoft Office for their quattro of business apps (too time-poor to struggle with Google Docs & Apps just yet).  I needed to download Firefox to use an NZ government website recently which was both a surprise and a disappointment (actually Firefox isn’t working either - javascript issue?).  I’m using Skype, Messenger for Mac, Tweetie 2 (thanks for the recommendation, Amnon) for Twitter.

A big reason for getting this was the need to sort through years of photos, juggle, resize, generally tidy up and file the ones I’m keen to keep.  I’m having a close look at Aperture 2 and keen on any feedback about photographic editing apps for Mac before I make my final decision.

For big screen, the jury’s still out.  I’m trying to avoid the Apple Cinema Display as the Dell’s seem to have similar quality, but Apple has enough design superiority (wiring/panache/buttons) to keep me interested.  Just a big price tag to swallow.

Loving the Airport Express plug to my Tivoli, giving me wireless iTunes.  Showing home visitors this reminds me of the early wifi days and the feeling of ‘walking on new legs’ when you hooked someone up to internet on their laptop via wifi.  Truly one of life’s miracles.

I’ve heard of a few bad experiences with Time Capsule but need a gruntier base station for the Sounds house, so thinking this might be a good way to kill backup (I suck at manually backing up - don’t we all?) and Airport Extreme in a single swoop.  Again typically Apple-priced.  Ouch, until my loptop gets nicked or fries itself and then payback isn’t too back!

Anyway, loving the cool kit and being an Appleophile again.

I managed to get along to ad:tech in Sydney last week.  Enjoyed the key notes and many of the sessions (was reminded of a downward quality curve as day progresses graph though).  Conference-wise, what impressed me most were the four Twitter streams set up and promoted to attendees (and non-attendees) to converse, joke, comment and add insights through the entire conference. Hash tags (#) means searchable on Twitter ergo #ATSYD refers to the general conference stream, with #ATSYD1, #ATSYD2, #ATSYD3 used for the three breakout rooms running contemporaneous sessions.  At times I suspect there was more in-room Twitter participation than directed at the speaker.

Someone posted that tweating in conference is akin to passing notes in class and it certainly felt that way to me; slightly disrespectful to a speaker trying to carry the audience through a complex thought process as laptops and phones are furiously typed.  But the upside is huge.  4000 tweats got crunched down, a whole lot of attendees got to know each other via Twitter, we got to comment directly to the speakers and panels immediately following the sessions.  It was a highlight of the event and added tremendous value to the sessions.

One of the key themes this year was the movement of brands into the online conversation rather than merely being a flash sideshow.  There were numerous case studies of integrated use of social media to drive campaigns.  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, mobile, web and WOM (word of month) combining to build communities.  The emphasis on social media to reach consumers over-shadowed search and display, despite the obvious dominance of the latter two sectors.  Being in the online display business was almost redefined as traditional media!

I really enjoyed the first keynote, Nick Brian (CEO, Mediabrands) who stated that Recession equals Restart.  Nick proselytised that it wasn’t enough for marketers to just hold off, waiting for things to improve, but rather to hit the restart button and redefine their marketing strategies - with digital innovation at the core.

Here are 10 lessons from social media as provided via Twitter from @servantofchaos

1. Don’t believe the hype
2. Use subtle branding i.e. you don’t want to appear lame
3. Social media is not free … You are putting your reputation on the line
4. Learn from other people’s mistakes
5. Be quick ..New ideas are only unique for a short time … It’s the zeitgeist baby!
6. They won’t come. You have to use social media
7. Constantly reinvent … Your social media beast develops a life of its own. Sounds like a teenager!
8. Keep path to trial simple
9. Understand how your audience uses social media
10. Be brave … Social media is not for the faint hearted

If you’re a Facebook user, I recommend checking your privacy settings pronto.  Facebook now enables anyone to search for Facebook users who have public search listings.  Soon Facebook will allow users to make these public search listings visible to search engines like Google.

If you restrict your search privacy settings your public search listing will not be shown.  But, if you want friends who are not yet on Facebook to be able to search for you by name, you can change your settings on the Search Privacy page to allow this.

If you do choose to make your public search listing available, anyone who discovers your public search listing must sign up and login to contact you via Facebook.

From my webstock mailing list this morning:

Webstock and WIPA are extremely pleased to announce the launch of FullCodePress, a new and exciting series of web events.
The concept is simple: national teams compete against each other to build a website in 24 hrs, putting national pride and web prowess to the test.
And the real winners of the competitions? The not-for-profit organisation who is presented with a stunning, fully functional website.
The first competition will take place in Sydney, Australia on 18 August - a trans-Tasman clash between the best of Australia and New Zealand.
Following that, on the 9th February, and just prior to Webstock 08, teams from around the world will converge in Wellington New Zealand for a larger international competition. Think geek Olympics!

The competitions will be judged by a panel with a brief to look at such aspects as:
- meeting client needs
- web standards and accessibility best practice
- visual design
- innovative coding

Teams will consist of 7 members, covering all aspects of the web development process. Those interested in being considered for the New Zealand or Australian teams are invited to register at FullCodePress.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I ended up winning 5 user licences for e-LM.com’s project management software at Convergence this year. I’m sure there’s something in the rules about the MC not being allowing to keep gifts. So at the final panel discussion, I took the opportunity to donate these to CityLink MD, Neil de Wit, to assist in planning the rollout of Wellington’s pending new regional fibre and wireless network! Scoop has the subsequent media release. All the best, Neil. I hope the prize is useful!

Thanks to Luke for this truly outrageous story about a ‘Greek God’ themed Sony party, complete with nude women and a decapitated goat, to launch their new God of War II game. Apparently this was covered in the latest (rapidly recalled) Playstation magazine.

I found this cleverness on the Wellingtonista and just had to give it a whirl …

What do the colors mean?

blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

Post yours on Flickr.

For all you MacBook lovers or PC people missing a PCMCIA slot in your notebook, Telecom is soon to introduce the Sierra Wireless USB Modem for EVDO Revision A. I can’t wait for mine to arrive. Max speed 3.1mbs downlink, 1.8mbs uplink.

Just passing on this event information on behalf of my usability colleagues …

PROTOTYPING TOOLS FOR WEB DESIGN
After a slow start to the year, the Wellington UPA group has an exciting series of events planned for 2007! Thanks to some new members on the organizing group we are glad to announce regular monthly meetings for the rest of the year with a topic presenter/s at each meeting. We will have each UPA meeting on the first Tuesday of each month.

To kick things off, our next meeting is Tuesday April 3^rd and will be about prototyping tools for web design.

A rapid iterative prototyping process is often used with user centred design methodologies. With web based UCD designs we find interaction designers using a variety of tools to create, refine and test prototypes. With so much to learn about each tools advantages/disadvantages, it can sometimes be helpful to simply talk to someone who has used the tool.

Come along to the next Wellington UPA meeting to listen to 6 speakers talk for 10 minutes each on a tool that they have used for prototyping.

The speakers are:

1. Dave OBrien, Optimal Usability, talking about Microsoft Visio
2. Lulu Pachuau, Hansel, talking about Omnigraffle
3. Nicole Kaufmann, Optimal Usability talking about Axure
4. Isha Hartono, Provoke talking about Microsoft Expression Suite
5. Tim Norton and Natalie Ferguson, Plan HQ talking about Adobe Flash
6. Mary Sue Severn, Effacy, talking about their own tool Simplar Studio

Details of the event are:
When: Tuesday April 3^rd, 12 noon to 1.30pm
Where: Hansel, Meeting Room, Level 3, 56 Victoria Street, Wellington

M-Net reports: “Lukas Svoboda, one of New Zealand’s leading experts in Enterprise Architecture, will take up a new position with Fronde in Auckland” … today.  I hear they have two senior people jumping over from Microsoft, plus another from Fonterra, and a couple of others also joining this month.  Seems the Fronde is unfurling … gotta be good for Wellington.