I am always looking for new and easy ways to test websites I have created in all the modern browsers, and recently stumbled across ‘spoon‘.

In a nutshell spoon gives you the ability to run any app virtually, with no complex setup or install.  Simply download and install the spoon plug-in and you’re ready to run a huge selection of open source apps for free including web browsers, media editors, audio players, office suites and the list goes on.

Obviously this appealed to me and certainly seemed like a great way to test my web projects;  with its support for all major versions of IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera it would make my life so much easier and bring a more consistent look to my designs across all platforms.  The great thing is that once you have downloaded and installed the plug-in you are only a few clicks away from running any open source app virtually, and for cross browser testing I have been hard pushed to find anything better.

As well as running free open source apps spoon does offer a premium service where developers are able to run and test their own applications.

However, as with most things there are always a few draw-backs.  spoon doesn’t support Mac; I made some inquiries regarding the development for this and was given the impression it would be quite some time before this was released, late 2011 was the advised date which is a shame for all those Mac based designers out there. Personally I do own a PC laptop, but this certainly doesn’t give me the best experience when viewing any of my sites.  I also found the service to be inconsistently slow for no reason but in its defence it is still far quicker than any of the alternatives such as browser shots.

spoon is certainly a step in the right direction for both app and cross-browser testing; I would just like to see the support for Mac hurried a little.

Clunky and badly designed animation has flooded the web for as long as I can remember.  In the early days this phenomenon belonged to the animated gif files blinking furiously at you in an erratic attempt to attract your attention, while in comparison today’s web is littered with a mixture of gif, javascript and now flash animation. So this has made me wonder, is this animation simply a crude distraction that is degrading our web experience and masking the quality beneath, or is this what our aspiration for the web should be?

I am going to try as hard as I can to not be biased here but I have some pretty major issues with Flash!  Firstly it is not truly accessable to users, for those who have problems with their sight Flash offers a poor experience giving screen readers no chance to express the content whether it be pictures or text. Secondly, Google have made steps forward with the indexing of Flash content, but no matter how well Google can manage this the content will always be sub-standard compared to well written HTML, and this only means that Google can index Flash other search engines have not made these advances, so Flash immediately is at a disadvantage as a web tool.

‘So Flash can’t be indexed big deal, it brings a more complete experience’ – This is the kind of response I hear when a flash developer defends their favourite tool.  Well, it’s not as simple as that, just because things can animate doesn’t mean that they should, when I visit a web site I want the easy to find content that I came for not a series of unnecessary animations flicking from picture to picture with pointless un-indexable messages in between! Nor do I want the pages or content to be randomly redrawn or to be erratically presented, just give me what I wanted that is why I am here, and why I have given your site a chance!  This is where I feel Flash has moved away from the accessible web of now and the future, the web is where we can express, entertain, share and learn, putting blocks in-front of this creates a lesser experience not a better one.  Maybe Flash should stay in its newly discovered home of television where more and more animators are using Flash to create amazing cartoons and animations for the visual world and to be honest it feels more accurately placed there.

See why I was worried about being biased! – So I will try and redress the balance – Flash is an amazing piece of animation software, in my time I have seen some amazingly executed Flash websites and rich application, these helped make the web a more visual experience during the time before quality design started to take hold.   The sad thing is that I believe Flash is being left behind as the drive to be at the top of a Google search takes hold; Flash cannot be indexed in this same way and the industry doesn’t seem in-a-rush to change that.  As Flash becomes an integral part of the visual media market maybe it will find its true place in the future of TV interactivity?

Overall, the lack of accessibility has always been an issue for me.  Not only has the web accepted flash for the building of websites but a large number of sites have adopted flash banner advertising as a way to generate cash, this is not only annoying but demonstrates a complete lack of understanding for how the web should be. 

In an ideal world we should strive for well designed, accessible websites which contain advertising that complements the web product cleanly and professionally instead of being a distracting add-on.  I hope the industry can move in the right direction, however Flash may simply be too popular!

Since my iphone arrived in July I have been putting it through its paces as well as expanding the catalogue of applications on this excellent little gadget.  From games to apps that help me maintain my website there are some great free downloads from the Apple App store you shouldn’t be without!

Klick is a great little application that allows you to upload photos straight from your iphone to your Flickr account, using the iphone built in location software you can tag you photos immediately with your location.  If you have a WordPress account you can even feed you flickr photos straight to your site from your Iphone.

If you use a number of instant message clients such as AIM or Microsoft messenger then IMPlus bridges the gap between your iphone and your IM buddies. Simply choose the network you want to access and simply fill in your user name and password, you can have multiple accounts so you can switch between them easily.

When boredom sets in on long journeys your iphone conveniently becomes a games console (well sort of) and the range of games is quite impressive, and one that won’t disappoint is Cubes lite.  The aim of the game is to rotate a three dimensional rubix type cube and clear large numbers of matching colour blocks to achieve the required score totals for each level.  The only drawback with the lite version of this game is the lack of levels, at three levels the game is over quite quickly, but that won’t stop you trying to beat you high score.

If you are a wordpress blogger or want ot be but just can’t find the time, then the wordpress app may help.  I find it difficult to find the time to post due to family and work commitments so this has given me the ability to post from my phone in a really user friendly system, my only problem with it is the lack of image control, in this day and age images with posts are so important and this lets it down badly.

Other apps that may interest are:-
Twitteriffic
Phonesaber
Ipint
Facebook
Flashlight

All I am waiting for now is a good quality Sat Nav application, I heard that Tom Tom are developing a version for the Iphone but nothing seems set in stone yet.  If, however this does appear on the market in a free version I will post with details.