Jan 2007

So, some of you might know we TP-ers have a bit of a love for the mac and all things Apple. It must come from that love of seeing computers work how they should and be as intuitive and easy to use as they should. So, although this post is totally unrelated to travel, it is totally related to Apple. In particular, Apple's newest creation, the absolutely stunning iPhone!

Revealed a few hours ago, this thing just makes me drool. A few things make it stand out for me in that 'Apple' way.

• tilt function (yes, all phones can be tilted, but how many actually adjust the screen format from landscape to portrait and vice versa based on the tilt angle?!)
  
• integration with google maps & google earth. It looks great in the demo - hopefully it will live too.
  
• the touch screen and the scroll effects when using it
  
• the way to scroll through album artwork a la itunes (check it out there if you've never seen this before!)
  
• zooming function, using either a pinch type movement with the fingers or double tap
  
• last, but certainly not least for any web developer out there, the way the browser looks. Things like the tilt function come back here, actually making mobile web browsing look good in landscape mode for example. Or zoom in using the same pinch/double tap technique in case you can't read something.
  

Of course it's got a great big screen, doubles as an ipod, has great email/sms and calling extras too.

The downside. Two that I can see on the face of it:
1. storage: 4gb or 8gb could run out pretty quickly if you try and sync all your photos across.
2. availability: even in the US it's not available until June at the earliest. I'm not sure what that means for us non US folk, all 5 billion of us, but I doubt we'll be seeing this thing in stores for a while. Not only that, but a real downside in the States is that you can only use it with Cingular. I hope Apple don't pursue a similar policy in Norway!

Now, I just have to wait a while, or maybe I can pick one up in the States and just plug in my Norwegian sim card....

If you pop over to Wikipedia, take a look at the article about Travellerspoint! Who knows what wonderful and wacky things you will discover about the wonderful and wacky creators of this wonderful and wacky website?

Due to a recent burst of membership, I've been checking out the Travellerspoint stats page a little more than usual. If you've been there recently, you may have noticed it tells you we have members from 242 countries. What it doesn't tell you is how many countries we don't have members from.

There's two: Gabon and San Marino.

Do you know any Gabonese folk? Do you have any San-marinese friends? Tell them about Travellerspoint!

Another little random fact I discovered while finding out what people from San Marino are called: the long version of San Marino is The Most Serene Republic of San Marino. Any travellers to San Marino care to agree/disagree with this claim?

In an effort to make the front page a little more appealing to first time visitors, I've just completed a small revamp. You will need to be logged out to see the new design

I'm keen to know your thoughts! If you experience bugginess, please help us track it down by letting us know your browser (+version) and operating system.

note: be sure to refresh your browser, as the styles might be cached, leaving the whole page looking a little blank

Stats-watchers that we are, we love to see a new record being set. Wednesday proved to be the best membership day in the history of Travellerspoint, with 146 new TP'ers signing up.

We can't say why this happened as unfortunately we haven't noticed any particular new links to the site, but naturally we are pleased. Hopefully it is a sign of a busy year ahead

Happy new year!