Google changes search engine to prioritise mobile friendly sites

Development, Mobile, Software, Tech, Web

I got an email from the Google Webmaster Tools Team in relation to one of my old sites.

Google systems have tested 204 pages from your site and found that 99% of them have critical mobile usability errors. The errors on these 202 pages severely affect how mobile users are able to experience your website. These pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.

Now I have to update this old site. I feel it is a good time to implement some current technologies like angular.js and jquery with it and maybe some others. But this is really a tipping point in the supremacy of sites being ready for mobile devices above normal computers and laptops.

CMS Wire has more detail here about the change.

It’s possible to test a site for mobile friendliness using this link.

Giving yourself a chance to get your smartphone back

Mobile, Tech, Thought Provoking, Travel

Very informative post about how one techie got an iPhone that was in flight mode back to its owner.
Robert Freeman’s post about how he got an iPhone back to its owner.

One of the main points was at the end of how any smartphone owner can help a finder get in contact with you if you ever lose your phone.

If you have a smartphone, take a look at it and think how anyone would get it back to you if you lost it. Why not put your contact details on the lockscreen right now?

iOS users can do this by replacing their lock screen wallpapers (screenshot above) .

Android users go to Settings > Lockscreen > Owner Info (if you have Jellybean).

Settings > Security (if you have Ice Cream Sandwich).

I need to do that myself later. One commenter suggested getting stickers done also. Nice idea.

Flickr just announced one terabyte of space for every user!

Mobile, Photography, Tech, Web

Very interesting coming one day after they announce the acquisition of Tumblr and their promise not to screw it up. The look and feel of the site has also been updated and places all of the focus on the images. I wonder how this will affect the pro model that they use?

The BBC reports

“It puts Flickr back on the agenda making it relevant to both hobbyist and professional photographers alike, but it also reignites the whole storage capacity war that started with Gmail and that we are now seeing with cloud file sharing services.”

Google offers users a total of 15GB of free storage across its core cloud services. Facebook does not impose such a limit but downgrades the quality of high-resolution photos.

Nokia 920 PureView Lowlight performance

Arts, Photography, Tech

The most disappointing aspect of shooting photographs on the iPhone 4S is the dismal low light performance. This article from Petapixel piqued my interest about how the lowlight performance of the new Nokia 920 ranked against other cameras.

In order to back up its claim that PureView low light performance is “unbeatable”, Nokia set up a “photo challenge” booth at its launch party and invited passers-by to pit their cameraphones against the Lumia 920. The challenge involved shooting a photograph of a still life setup stuffed inside a dark cubby hole in a brick wall.

One sample comparison shows the performance is clearly impressive.

Nokia 920 sample

Competitor Sample Image

This makes me think there may be a reason to switch to Nokia during my next phone upgrade.

Getting into mobile internet

Munich, Tech, Travel, Web

I’m a late adopter when it comes to using the internet on a phone. This has mainly come about due to the dearth of services that were available, my reluctance to commit to any type of contract and I wanted to get away from being online when I am away from the office or my apartment. However, now that I do a weekly commute and the fact that the train services I use don’t have any wireless services meant that I was out of touch for long spells on Mondays and Fridays. That was annoying when it meant being out of the loop while news was breaking on Monday or social plans were being made on Friday. This all came to a head when I needed a new phone and after a terrible experiment with an Lg, I found a review of the nokia 6220 classic on youtube that suggested it had the features of the N82 but without the huge pricetag. I got it and I got a kick out of using features like GPS, google maps, twitter, etc. However, the frequency and cost of topping up my credit was a problem. I went into t-mobile in Munich and they offered me a priceplan of 10 Euro a month but I had to commit to a contract. Since then, I haven’t looked back. My costs have good down, my train journeys are not so boring and now I’ve written my first blog post on the phone. Have a nice weekend.