iTalk: I know the latest iphones have a built in app for voice memos but i find it a bit non-intuitive for an Apple app and much prefer Griffin Technology’s iTalk. It’s fast to get going, simple to start and pause and has selectable recoding qualities. And the best bit; it syncs wirelessly to your mac. Now why can’t all apps do that?

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Tweetdeck: For all us twits that feel the need to regularly tweet, an app for one’s iphone is an essential item. I’ve been through many during the past year and only one gets close to providing a mobile service that matches a laptop/workstation experience. What’s more, Tweetdeck is free. Go and download it and try it out.

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Evernote: Anyone that doesn’t use Evernote should have their head examined. It’s one of the best web-based tools around and it’s even better when mobile. As well as saving all your great ideas when you’re out and about, you can recover all the notes you’ve saved and tagged. This app alone saves me hours of time every week in no longer having to search through scraps of paper for those important little notes.

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Stanza: A new entry this past month, Stanza is more than just an ebook reader, it’s a gateway to a whole world of ebooks, including thousands of free ones. You can search, download and read ebooks straight from your iphone just as you would a Kindle (if you had one).

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iSki: From this years favourite to last years favourite. iSki is a must for all ski nuts. If you’re on the piste or of to the piste you’ll need to understand the local weather conditions. If you’re stuck at home with nothing to do, iSki gives you instant access to hundreds of webcams all over the world so even when you can’t be there, you can see what you’re missing.

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So those are mine: What’s your favourite app?

As a husband of a top author (check out www.theharcombediet.com), I was equally excited about the prospect of being able to help her find an additional route-to-market for her writing skills.

So with massive enthusiasm I jumped in to order my Kindle and get to work on Zoe’s Kindle books.

Now the reality:

Kindle will be available worldwide as of 17.10.09 but it can only be purchased from Amazon.com (in the USA).  The price tag of $279 makes it ok value but when you get to the cart, you get charged $20.98 shipping and $45 import tax. Total price $344.98. mmm strange that wasn’t mentioned in any press release.

Ok, so hardware sorted, how about the publishing side? An early claim from Kindle was that it will change the world of publishing, making it easier for authors to get their works published without needing to find a publisher (echos of itunes here…).  So after reading all the technical requirements for publishing, which seemed relatively simple if you can manage some basic html, I set off to publish.

Unfortunately, what Amazon don’t tell you is that to have an author account to publish to Kindle you must have a US dollar bank account, a US social security number and a US postal address. Basically, you need to be an American living in America.

So, Kindle is available to the world, you can download any of their 250,000 titles in under 60 seconds each, anywhere on mother earth. Great, as long as you want to read American literature.

Jeff Bezos (Founder of Amazon)  states their vision for Kindle is  “…to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds”

Jeff, if you’re reading this; please, please, please sort out the Author accounts so that authors worldwide can start to add their works. You’ve managed it for Createspace (Amazon’s self-publish service)  when will the same be available for Kindle?

I’ve tried many compacts and none really give me the flexibility/quality/performance that I need. However, a solution that has really worked well for me is the Olympus E-500 and standard kit lenses. The 8megapixels is more than ample resolution and the two lenses combined give me a 14-150mm range (28-300mm in traditional 35mm terms). The kit is also really light and easy to use and can be carried around in a small kit bag. Sure, it has its restrictions in terms of hi-iso performance and the lenses aren’t as good as my main line Sigmas. However, for a great set to carry about for those just-in-case moments, I find it hard to beat. Plus using it takes me back to my early photographic days with my OM2.