After upgrading to iOS 5 on my iPhone, my previously perfect Bluetooth connection to my Fiesta suddenly stopped working properly. After about 15-20 minutes the connection would just stop – the phone still thought it was connected, but the stereo was no longer receiving any audio. In addition, before dropping the connection, the message “Bluetooth audio error reading device” would pop up on the radio’s display every time I used the track skip controls.

Fortunately, there’s a solution – Ford have posted an update on to their Ford Connectivity website here. It’s a DIY fix – download the ZIP file, unzip it and you’ll find a folder called “ford_audio_update”. Simply copy the files from that folder onto a USB stick (make sure it’s not put into another folder on the USB stick), and you’re ready to apply the update.

It’s a simple process but seems a bit flakey. The steps are:

1. Turn off the ignition.
2. Turn on the stereo.
3. Plug your USB stick into your stereo’s USB socket.
4. Turn on the ignition to position II (i.e. the position before you start the engine).
5. The update starts.

After applying the update (which takes about 20 minutes) you’ll find that not only does the Bluetooth connection to the iPhone work again, but track names are now displayed on the stereo’s display, and you can now use the Apple USB > Dock connector cable on it’s own (previously you needed a cable which also connected to the headphone socket).

Apple would like you to think that the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are perfect. They’re pretty nifty, I’ll give them that – but hardly worthy of the term “magic” (and don’t get me started on the “magical and revolutionary” tag they’ve slapped on the iPad). Perfection is a way off, though.

However, you can take your Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad one step closer to perfection with the aid of a pretty nifty bit of software called “Better Touch Tool”. I’ve been using it for a while now, so I thought it was about time I did a review of Better Touch Tool.

The reason why Apple’s trackpads (and Magic Mouse, which effectively is a trackpad and mouse combined) are so useful is that they’ve taken the humble laptop trackpad beyond the simple point’n'click capabilities of old, and made them a much more useful part of your computer. You can use one or two fingers on the mouse to scroll or navigate, or make use of up to four fingers on the trackpad to do things like rotate, zoom, navigate or launch Expose.

And that’s where the much-vaunted Apple User Experience starts to fall apart. Apple often make a big thing about wanting a consistent user experience – but why let you use up to four fingers on the trackpad, but only two on the mouse? It’s quite capable of registering four fingers, but they only let you use two – and not only that, but Apple will only let you do a couple of specific things. They don’t even keep it consistent – navigating forward/back is two fingers on the mouse, but three on the trackpad! So if you switch between using a laptop’s trackpad on the move, and then back to a mouse when at your desk, you have to remember two different ways of using them.

Here’s where Better Touch Tool steps in.

BTT lets you choose from a number of “gestures” and assign them to pretty much whatever you like. For example, I have my mouse and trackpad set to use “TipTap” gestures to switch between browser tabs - keeping my forefinger on the pad and tapping with my middle finger switches to the next tab, and holding my middle finger and tapping my forefinger switches to the previous tab. that’s not even an option with the Apple settings, but it’s incredibly useful. I have another one Apple don’t let you choose – a three-finger tap to open a link in a new tab. When you spend a lot of time in the browser, those two shortcuts come in handy all the time. I didn’t have to use those particular gestures for those actions – I could have chosen any of the others from the long list of options – tapping or swiping with up to four fingers, tapping in a particular corner, drawing a triangle, clicking, scrolling - pretty much every option you can think of is available.

However, BTT doesn’t stop there. You can also assign new keyboard shortcuts if you like working that way, all in the same app. And in a stroke of genius, the author has added the option to set application-specific settings. Heck, it’ll even work with a normal (not Magic) mouse.

And just in case you thought that was more than enough to be getting on with, BTT packs in some extra features which have also come in really handy. The main one I’ve found useful is the Windows 7-style “Window snapping”, where you can drag a window to the side of the screen and have it automatically snap to a specific size; but there are a few other options to do with task switching and window management. Again, the level to which you can customise these options is pretty impressive.

Oh, and there’s one final thing to mention – it’s free. But the author does accept donations, and I strongly suspect you’ll be hitting that “donate” button after a few weeks of using it; I’ve certainly done so.

Rating: get it!
(What does this mean?)

I’m often asked to suggest a decent website host, so I figured I might as well write up my thoughts on the subject. This post is primarily a review of my current hosting provider, but I’m also going to mention another provider that I would use if I needed to.

Hawk Host review

I’ve been with Hawk Host for just over three years at time of writing. Before signing up with Hawk Host, I’d been with three other hosts; none of which had been very good. After trawling various forums and reading opinions, I finally settled on Hawk Host – partly because I’d read plenty of comments from happy customers, and partly because they were doing a special offer at the time. I wasn’t expecting great things – it was less than $5 a month, making it the second cheapest host I’d used – but three years on, I’m still a happy customer.

Why do I like Hawk Host?

The price is certainly a big factor. If you sign up today, their basic account will cost you $12 for three months. That gives you 3Gb disk space and 30Gb traffic – plenty to get you started.

On top of that, Hawk Host supply their customers with the widely used “cPanel” hosting control panel, which lets you control all aspects of your account and hosting package. You can set up mailboxes, add on subdomains, create FTP accounts, manage your SQL databases, install WordPress, Drupal or any of the other 1-click installs that are provided for you, view your stats – well, you get the idea. You’ve also got the ability to run multiple websites from a single account, which is something some hosts (such as my second choice) don’t let you do. In fact, I haven’t found anything I can’t do yet. There’s even automated file backups, with easy restoration available via the control panel (although database restores need to be done by Hawk Host’s helpdesk). And if this all seems a little too complicated, there are a number of very helpful video tutorials that talk you through the various functions.

And then there’s the support. I’ve only had cause to contact them for minor things, but they’ve always responded quickly and been very helpful. They’ve embraced Twitter, too, and not only put out useful information such as maintenance activity, but also respond to tweeted queries.

So my initial (low) expectations have been surpassed in every way imaginable. The price is cheap, but the service and reliability are anything but. Other than scheduled downtime, I haven’t had any loss of service (I use a website monitoring tool to check) or slow website response. And my concerns about using a host in the US rather than the UK have proven to be unfounded.

Heart Internet

My second recommendation is for a company that I’ve never used for website hosting, but I am using them for domain name management (as well as 123-reg.co.uk). The reason why I feel I can recommend a service I’ve never actually used is that, again, the level of customer service is excellent. There is a big difference between Heart Internet and Hawk Host, though – Heart Internet are roughly twice the cost, but offer slightly fewer advanced features than Hawk Host; things like only being able to point one domain name at your account. Certainly, for a less technical person, I’d recommend Heart Internet over Hawk Host (and vice versa).

So although I don’t use Heart Internet for hosting, I do now use them for my domain names. I will be switching all my domains to Heart Internet – 123-reg are OK, and their prices are competitive, but the Heart Internet control panel is better.

A word about 123-Reg.co.uk

I’ve used 123-reg for my first few domain names as their prices were competitive. However, I don’t think their website hosting options are very good – they’re very basic, and quite limited compared to other companies – and as I’ve already said, their control panels are not as good as Heart Internet’s. And if you’re wondering why I don’t use Hawk Host for my domain management, it’s mainly because I prefer to keep my domains managed by a UK company.

Don’t like either of these?

You’ll find plenty of other companies out there; pick up .net or Web Designer magazines and they’re packed with adverts. It’s always worth looking at what other people have said about companies you’re considering – I’ve provided links to three useful sites in the “related links” panel in the top right.

You're not tied to O2

My iPhone 3G contract with O2 ran out a few weeks ago, and while I wait for the next model to be announced, I thought I’d see if the other networks were any better. Now that O2 is no longer the only network for iPhone, there’s the opportunity to switch provider – O2 has been ok, but sometimes texts are delayed, calls don’t reach me, and 3G performance has not been great.

Fortunately, O2 have made it quite easy for iPhone owners to switch provider, so anyone can give it a try. And, since I’m not actually ready to switch provider just yet, I’ve got a couple of tips if you’re thinking of staying with O2 after your contract has expired.

Read on to find out how you can set up your iPhone with another provider, or switch your O2 contract to something cheaper.

How to unlock your iPhone

First things first: you need to get your iPhone unlocked. This not as scary as it sounds – you don’t need to visit one of the dodgy little shops you find on most London streets these days, or answer some dodgy eBay advertisement – it’s dead simple, and O2 will do it for you. If you’ve heard about jail-breaking, don’t worry – this is NOT jail-breaking your iPhone; it’s perfectly OK and O2 are actually the ones doing it, so there is NO PROBLEM AT ALL.

If you’re on contract, you can unlock the phone at any time FOR FREE; if you’re a pay-as-you-go customer it will cost you £15, and if you’ve had the phone for less than a year you’ll also lose the web & wifi bolt-on. Obviously if you unlock the phone before your contract runs out you’ll still need to pay O2 for the remainder of the contract – you can’t just stop paying the monthly contract charge – but that just means you keep paying your monthly bill as normal. There’s no lump sum or sudden charge if you unlock your contract iPhone, whether it’s after 19 months or after just one month.

All you need to do is fill in this iPhone unlocking form on the O2 website and they’ll take care of the rest; you’ll receive a text a week or two later telling you that your iPhone is now unlocked. It’s that simple – no phone calls, and you can do it even if you’re perfectly happy with O2; but now, if you travel, you’ll be able to put a local SIM in your phone and cut your overseas calling costs when on holiday.

Using another SIM

Anyway, once you’ve received the “We’ve unlocked your phone” message from O2, put in another network’s SIM (use the little tool that came with your iPhone to get the SIM tray out) and connect the iPhone to iTunes – you’ll get a message confirming that your iPhone is now unlocked. You should now see the new network in the top left of your screen. If you don’t, go into your Settings screen, tap General, and then Network – try switching off 3G. I couldn’t get a Vodafone signal until I turned off 3G – this was because the 3G signal was very faint, so my iPhone kept trying to connect to it; as soon as I told it not to use 3G, I got a full-strength GPRS signal instead.

Job done? Nearly…

Vodafone data settings for the UK

Check your cellular data connection settings

There is one more step. When you put in another network’s SIM, the phone will recognise it and change the network settings for you. However, it’s worth checking the data settings for your new network – the Vodafone settings that were automatically applied to my iPhone were incorrect. I kept getting the message “you are not subscribed to a cellular data plan” whenever I tried to access the Internet.

For Vodafone in the UK, the “Cellular Data” section should have these settings:

APN: wap.vodafone.co.uk
Username: wap
Password: wap

Want to stay with O2 after your 18/24 months, but not pay as much?

Although my O2 contract has run the 18 months, I’m going to wait until the new iPhone is announced later in the year before I decide if I want to switch networks – but I don’t want to keep on paying £35 a month.

My wife and I mainly use our iPhones for texting and surfing; we don’t use all of our voice minutes, so it’s not really worth paying that much every month. Well, it turns out that O2 have a new range of iPhone tariffs called “Simplicity for iPhone”, and they’re ideal for people like us – prices start at just £15 a month for 300 minutes, and you still get the unlimited data, free wifi and visual voicemail! That’s for a 12-month contract, and from what I can tell it’s the best deal around at the moment; Vodafone PAYG would work out at £15 just for data alone, no calls (they charge 50p per day for data).

My wife has switched to the £15 plan for 12 months, whereas I’ve gone for the 1-month rolling contract (which means I can cancel at any time with 30 days’ notice) in case I do want to switch network later – that’s £20 per month but don’t forget, it’s just a 1-month contract – I’m not locked in. And it’s still cheaper than PAYG. Even the equivalent contract to the £35 one we both had is now only £20 (per month for 12 months; the one-month version is £25) – and that’s with unlimited texts, not the 600 we originally had.

So, unlocking your iPhone is easy, and assuming your contract is now finished – which a lot of them will be around about now – you can either switch to another network or save yourself some cash! Simples!