Navigon – Mobile Navigator Europe and Britain- Sat Nav on your iPhone
After a long wait for most iPhone users finally the iPhone supports Turn by Turn navigation! No longer do we need to carry around Tom Tom's or a variety of other sat nav systems because it's easier just to use it directly on your phone. A number of applications have promised to have turn by turn in and the first of these to arrive on the AppStore was Mobile Navigator (Navigon).
At first I was dubious, I've always been a Tom Tom kinda guy and the thought of using a new Sat Nav system just seemed alien to me. However the fact Tom Tom seems miles away from being on the AppStore, Navigon won my purchase. Two versions of the App are available on the AppStore, a full Europe Version and a Britain only version. With plans to travel in the near future I chose the EU version.
First thing that struck me about the program was its rather hefty size, at 1.7GB it's rather large and this meant removing some music from my 8GB iPhone. I was a little upset about this at first but with the plans to get a 32GB iPhone 3GS in the near future it wasn't something that swayed my decision. After the 2 hours download time (I was on a slow connection at the time) it installed (in around 20 minutes) and then was up and running. In my office at work I managed to get a GPS signal with no problem and Navigon positioned me pretty much perfectly.
VPS, Web Hosting, Scalable, Redundancy and DNS, Free SSL what more can you want?
Ok, I've been hosting websites for while now, started with a normal hosting account where I only gave a couple of friends FTP access. Next I progressed onto a reseller account then when needing more flexibility I moved onto running dedicated servers. In recent months dk101.net moved to a VPS account hosted by Innohosting. I've loved every second of my hosting with them, the system is very stable, runs well and their support has always been quick and knowledgeable.
I also have 2 other VPS's hosted by another company, now I won't link to this other company because at the end of their day the service is rubbish and I wouldn't want people going there, however it wasn't bad enough to link to them to complain (i'm sure that makes sense) But, now I have found another company offering VPS. Now, if it wasn't geeky enough already for you it's going to get there shortly...
What do they offer?
- A VPS which is instantly scalable, giving you the ability to increase your capacity when you need it and scale back when you don’t.
- A VPS which can deliver your content simultaneously from both the United Kingdom and United States.
- Failover service meaning that if your site goes down it will automagically switch to a new node and is back up in around 40 seconds
- A managed DNS system, very powerful, setup with Anycast and highly redundant.
To top is off they also offer Free Control Panel Software and unlimited free SSL certificates. I've recently taken out a few nodes and messed with all different configurations and I'm very happy with the service so far. The support department have replied to tickets within 45 minutes so far and their community forums are filled with knowledgable people including the CEO of the company who are very willing to help.
The Bad things...
- The only way to pay through paypal (at the moment) is by talking directly to a sales person which I found a little slow.
- Purchasing a license for cPanel/WHM again had to be done through a sales person
- The company is reasonably new meaning that things are still in production
So if you are looking for server space for any item I would seriously reccommend VPS.NET!
The Sims 3 – On iPhone
I didn't think this would arrive as soon as this, I was expecting to have to wait until firmware version 3.0 arived for the iPhone but to my shock and delight Sims 3 arrived in the app store at some point recently. I purchased it on Monday and am already addicted!
As with the majority of (big company) iPhone apps I was expecting something Visually impressive and I haven't been let down. From the main loading screen we are treated to awesome quality graphics and yes it does only get better. Loading time is reasonable, though i'm sure on the 3GS it will be much faster.
I've not spent enough time on it to give a decent review so that will come later.. But For now.. Here's some screen shots from the game...
