I bought a iMac stand for my iPhone. It’s great for using
by my bedside and on my desk.
Over the last few weeks I have been building a new blog. The Really Useful Engine Blog. It’s for the Thomas the Tank Engine fans, who don’t appear to have any decent websites out there dedicated to the little blue engine. It’s built predominently using WordPress and I have heavily configured the CSS and added the content. There are sections to cover all the areas I want to promote and announce. There are two Amazon stores, one for the UK and one for the US. There are news items about the ‘Day Out with Thomas’ tours that occur around the countries all over the world. Product reviews too.
The Really Useful Engine Blog
It was sparked into life by a series of events which started with Facebook banning my Thomas the Tank Engine page. With over 22,000 fans currently registered to it, this is a great loss of readership and I will endeavour to be get un-banned and start promote fans to my site. In the meantime, it will allow me to populate the site with relevant information about Thomas and find news, reviews and products to shout about.
I have also embarked on a new area for me, affiliation. Adding advertising banner to my website will allow visitors to click the links and view the deals available. It’s quite hard to realise who my demographic is, and in-turn decide which banners to add. But, I think the toy shop banners can’t be too out of place on this website.
I contacted the Hit Entertainment, the owners of the Thomas the Tank Engine brand and said, “it’s fabulous!!”. Which good to hear.
Thomas the Tank Engine on Facebook
For the last 12 months, I have been working on building up a Facebook page to discover the benefits and pitfalls of said task. I created a page which is easy to maintain, easy to monitor and very enjoyable to manage.
I chose ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ as my theme and have had literally thousands of fans join. I think that nostalgic toys and the memories they invoke can bring many people together to join ‘forums’ and discuss new topics. I also have an interest in Thomas the Tank Engine due to my 4 year old son being completely obsessed with the little blue engine and all his friends. The latter has made me realise, this is not a brand that’s deminishing in any way.
As success as it appears, my Facebook Thomas the Tank Engine page has had it’s moment of uncertainty. In August last year, Facebook decided to ban me from promoting the character because I wasn’t the owner. I had to get HIT Entertainment, the current owner of the brand to contact Facebook to realise the lock they had imposed upon me. Since then, it’s been very good progress.
The page allows fans to post pics of their Thomas toys and tracks and video of themselves riding Thomas at various theme parks all over the world. The newsfeed is mostly comprised of googled news about the Thomas the Tank Engine brand and Thomas the Tank Engine TV Series which encourages fan to comment. Other news articles featured consist of worldworld events where Thomas the Tank Engine might appear for children to visit.
In March I created some polls using (Poll Daddy) to ask the fans various questions about their appreciation of Thomas the Tank Engine. The results will be published next month, and reveals some very interesting points.
As I publish this (3rd March 2010) I’m looking at 19,778 fans and it’s increasing every day.
To join my Thomas the Tank Engine page on Facebook, click the link and become a fan.
This is a great little app for the kids. Talking Carl simply repeats anything you say. It’s sounds ridiculous and it is, but it’s also a very very amazing app. Speak into the device mic or earphone mic and listen to Carl repeat it in his little voice. You can also tickle me by rubbing his front. He even says goodbye when you quit.
To download Talking Carl from the iTunes app store,
click here
I bought this app back in October 2009. Priced at about £80 / 1.4GB download file.
This has to be the most useful of all my iPhone apps so far. It has all the normal TomTom functionality that you would need to complete any journey no matter how simple or complex. The Navigate option uses Favourite locations, Contacts, Post Code search. The app has an Alternative Route feature including Roadblock avoidance and Travel via options. There is a Day/Night Colours setting and the Mute sound option. The Points of Interest are particularly useful in European cities where you wouldn’t know where to park or shop etc. POI can also be found Nearby, in a City and Along Route.
The app works well in both portrait and landscape orientations and the buttons are easy to push while driving. I think the iPhone is excellent for apps like this, where other devices are absorbed and get better.
PROS: Integrates well into the iPhone device, fully loaded with the normal great TomTom features.
CONS: App size is very big and takes an age to download.
I have recently bought the US and Canada too at £50 GBP. Considering that the car rental company wanted $20 a day to rent one, it was a no-brainer to simply buy it.