Prague

Here are a few shots from our trip to Prague over Easter.

The city is wonderful, even in the cold wind and when it snows in April.

Happy 2012!

All the best for the year ahead!

Hopefully I'll have some more frequent posts again soon

Cheers,
-Simon

Top 10 Tips For Visiting Angkor

Top 10 Tips For Visiting Angkor | The Expeditioner Online Travel Magazine, by Simon Mikolayczyk (that's me!)

Click through for the full article - let me know what you think...

Decision Time... iPad 2 or Android?

Shortly before the holidays last year, the urge to get an iPad was swelling up inside me. I was seeing them everywhere, and was starting to cave to the social pressure of the coolness factor. Just as I was getting ready to pull the trigger, I heard the first whispers that version two would be capable of video chat. For me, living away from friends and family, this was a key feature and one I was willing to wait for - especially as the new version was expected to launch in the first quarter of 2011.

Since then, a number of things have happened - Android tablets have started hitting the market, the iPad 2 was indeed announced, and people have offered some good insights into life with an iPad. Taking these in reverse order:

Dan Frommer shared what 300 days with his iPad have been like. My take away from this is really that the device will not replace a laptop, but that for certain things it is enjoyable to use. Browsing is convenient, checking email works alright, gaming is a plus, movies/tv watching on the go can be good. But this is not the hyper productive work computer of the future, it is a fun toy that might be more convenient in certain circumstances.

The iPad 2 was announced yesterday, and reviews are pouring in. From the sounds of it, people are quite excited about the case... and everything else is a marginal improvement. While they have in fact added the video chat feature, and Steve Jobs says this is computing for the post-PC era, it does not sound like Frommer's experience of usage scenarios will be altered by the new version.

The Motorola Xoom (wifi only) model is set to release here in the UK a week after the iPad 2, and is priced to match the pricing of a similarly speced iPad. It offers the same feature set and positive reviews, but as Robert Scoble points out with a much more limited selection of apps, which is possibly a strong negative. On this point I'm forced to think about how Frommer is using his iPad after a year - he certainly mentions a few apps (Netflix, MLB, Twitter, etc) but says his focus is on browsing and email. With the assumption that Android will be the number 2 platform, if not number 1, in the long term these major apps are likely to become available. In the short term, does it really matter if they are there considering a tablet is mainly used for non-app tasks?

In fact, it's worth going a step further. I am a "Google User," meaning I use gmail, docs, calendar, reader - unsurprisingly these are indicatively better on the Android tablet. Further, most of my friends are gmail users meaning they are on gchat - text, plus many on video - and therefor I'm more likely to be talking to them through that - which they already have installed - than I am to be through Apple's Facetime - which I would have to convince them to not only install, but buy.

With all that being said, I still have yet to hold either - perhaps there is some truly tangible reason to pick the iPad 2 (it weighs a bit less, and is built more solid?). However, by deduction based on how I envision using a tablet, the Xoom (or an equivalent Android tablet) seem to be the way to go.

(Kindle) Lending Club

As is apparent from my last few posts on the Kindle, I've become a huge fan of it. In the last couple months, Amazon has enabled you to "lend" certain Kindle books to others via the website - much like how you can lend a paper back to a friend - meaning you can possibly avoid purchasing another book. This is especially nice, as the pricing decision has moved to publishers there are now instances where the Kindle version of a book is more expensive than the hardcover (don't ask me why).

Alas, to effectively lend/borrow books, you need to know someone who has the book on kindle and then swap. I've been trying to work my way through Verne's reading list, but know very few other people who both have a Kindle and an interest in these books. Enter the (Kindle) Lending Club.

Shortly after Amazon announced the feature, a facebook group was started to match people who have books, with those who want to read them. This quickly evolved into a more structured website called the (Kindle) Book Lending Club - Amazon has subsequently made them drop "Kindle" from their name for trade mark purposes. A quick signup, and you can add a list of books you are willing to lend, as well as a list you'd like to borrow. I did this a few weeks ago, and then started waiting... To be frank, I was ready to write the site off as I hadn't had anything shared with me, nor requested from me until this past Tuesday when a book showed up in my inbox. A few clicks, and it's delivered via wireless to the Kindle and I'm off and reading a new book.

Hopefully, The Book Lending Club will continue to attract more users. Only once true mass is achieved will that frustrating wait fall away. Additionally, Amazon leaves the decision of whether to enable lending on a book up to the publisher, at the moment there are quite a few books that you can't lend. Lastly, there's a 14 day limit on a lend, meaning that you need to finish reading in that time, or you'll never knows what happens. On that note I better get back to the book...

Artisan Products: Success Lessons for Businesses

I started the week reading The Atlantic piece on the new effort from the team that made Absolute and international brand: Karlsson's Gold. A unique "traditional" vodka they can only produce in limited quantities. Mid week I stumbled upon a review of Etsy, an arts and crafts marketplace that had drifted off my radar and was reminded of some amazing offers on hand made products. Somewhere along the line I was sent a write-up of Jack White's Third Man in Nashville - a music venue that produces music for the love of it on limited edition vinyl. Lastly, I ended up in the Camden Coffee Shop yesterday afternoon, where an elderly man roasts, grinds, and sells fantastic coffees.

In all cases, these individuals are producing what amount to artisan products - small batches of manually intensive products with a small but deep market segment they are appealing to. In all cases, they seem to be finding success of some measure (I don't have figures to support that, but anecdotally it seems the case - we passed three Starbucks before reaching the Camden Coffee Shop down a side street and still had to wait to be served). 

In a world increasingly overrun by commodities, these unique products offer the chance for individual experiences. Rather than being confronted with a "yea, I have that too" people are provided the chance to try something unique - something special. While that might be true of any limited release product, artisan products apear to take it a step further - they are the best at what they set out to be. That is ultimately the point of differentiation: being the best, and doing something because it's the way it should be done (even if it costs a buck more) will in turn garner the support of consumers who appreciate quality and who are keen for that one of a kind experience.

Book Review: Epitaph for a Spy

Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler is credited as one of the first true spy novels. In it he details the fumbling adventures of a teacher caught in a drama of circumstance, which leads to him being accused as a spy. While I felt like I was reading the 1930's equivalent of a Dan Brown novel - quick page turns and a go-go plot - the actual quality of the writing was far superior. No detail was superfluous, and no bit of the story was left unresolved. This provides a sense of satisfaction, as it signifies a level of sophistication that makes it alright to be reading a spy novel, which is often considered literary drivel.

All that being said, in the note at the end, Ambler states of his book "I still like bits of it." So maybe don't take the above as a true literary judgement, but rather a justification for enjoying a fun story. I look forward to picking up some of his other books in due course.