Adobe’s Flash system has been taking a real hammering recently with Apple, Google and Wikipedia effectively scrapping explicit support for the ageing video standard. Steve Jobs was recently moved to publish some notes on the subject to try and help the common man understand why Flash is bad and why open standards such as... »
News
User generated advertising
Recently I’ve become a regular user of Gowalla, a location based social networking app which allows you to tell friends where you are via Twitter and Facebook. Using the iPhone GPS, it finds your location and provides you with all the information it has on businesses and attractions (called “spots”) around you, allowing you... »
Moving with the times
Our way of working is far from conventional and with the arrival of the new iPad, our thoughts on how we work are beginning to change further and these thoughts extend out to how we use the web. Mobile browsing has grown fast over the last few years thanks to the wide availability of smartphones... »
First impressions on the iPad
For the most part, Connected are an Apple loving company so there was a lot of excitement among us yesterday as we awaited the arrival of Apple’s latest piece of kit. Despite my initial scepticism when it was announced, my opinion quickly changed and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I had... »
A/B testing comes out of the closet
One of the best kept secrets of web success, A/B testing, is ever so slowly sneaking out of the closet. In the last week or two we’ve seen Google’s very public A/B test and now Twitter has come out of the closet with a range of sign-up variations being tested. It seems that a... »
Talk to the Bear
Recently we introduced hot desking in our office, I traded my desk, my phone, my calculator and my coaster for an entire office worth of hot desking – I’m sat in an armchair as I write this. One of the benefits this brings is the ability to share problems and ideas with those you wouldn’t... »
A/B split testing for you and me
A/B split testing is the scientific way to see if a change is helping or hurting your site. Or if the change is just a change. It is founded in the core belief that trial and error economics works far better than HiPPO marketing. How does A/B testing work? The idea is to change some part... »
Fancy a quickie?
Over the past 15 years we’ve built a great internal library of information, guides and topic helpers and we’re committed to sharing this with the outside world. Starting in April 2010 we’re going to be rolling out our “Quickie Guides” (as they are known internally) onto the site. The subject matter is quite wide,... »
In praise of Apple products “Even the packaging is beautifully designed”
Hi, I joined the team at Connected in February 2008 & I still learn something new every day. I stepped into Connected’s lair of internet gurus & web developers to find a sprawling forest of PC towers, monitors, cables & dull black, dusty keyboards. I clutched my “personal” Apple Macbook Pro very firmly in my hand... »
Time to look to the future?
Cast your minds back almost 10 years, the first generation iPod was only just on the horizon, those Harry Potter kids were unknown and the latest games consoles were Sony Playstation 2 and Nintendo GameCube. This is when Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and began a decade of headaches and wasted hours for... »

