This is a conclusion I came to some time ago. Around the time Delicious were rumoured to be closing down, I began looking for another bookmark solution. Browsers offer syncing between devices now which is very convenient, but it relies on you using the same browser all the time. I’m far from loyal on the browser front and switch between Chrome, Safari and Firefox from update to update. In addition to this, I find the inbuilt bookmarking facilities on browsers to be too basic. With the sheer amount of information available online and the numerous topics under which it falls, folders and line breaks don’t really cut it anymore.

My hunt for a new bookmarking solution was fruitless, so I’ve been making do with different sets of bookmarks in different browsers. It hasn’t made any difference to me, because in all honesty with the exception of a few links here and there, after they are bookmarked they disappear. They gather dust in a meaningless folder of links, never to be bothered with again. Bookmarks are an outdated feature, a way to save brochure sites you like the look of, in case you want to visit again. Gone are those days, obviously we now have RSS to keep up with our favourite blogs and functionality within those RSS clients / services to bookmark individual posts we want to keep around for longer, but what about everything else? There are great services that help us to bookmark various things and functionality within apps which help us bookmark posts there internally, but it all feels a bit fragmented. I’ve got screenshots saved on my phone and desktop, notes in Evernote / Notes, a ‘pictures’ folder on my HDD containing things which don’t really belong anywhere else, favourites saved on my apps and an extensive yet useless bookmarks folder. Unless used at the time, they tend to lose all meaning. I often find myself saving things to send to my friends, which I then email to them and visa versa, only to be lost in our inboxes. This issue I think is one shared by many, with so much juicy content out there and so little time, a good all in one solution to save it for later is vital.

When I saw @owltastic‘s Tweet about a new service she had been using called Gimmie Bar, I thought my bookmarking prayers had been answered. I received my invite last night and have to say, they really have. Gimmie Bar is a new web app which allows the user to ‘bookmark’ just about anything from within the browser. The beauty of this is that no longer will you have a big list of irrelevant stuff, in addition to bookmarking links you can save a specific part of that site such as a video, image, text extract or screengrab. This caters for the varying types of content you might want to look at, but then makes a proper interface to browse them with even more important. Gimmie Bar recognised that and have built the app around organisation, allowing the user to curate their own collections. Collections can be public or private and shared with friends. In addition to this you can follow collections of interest to you.

In addition to being a great little app, it’s got a really lovely UI which makes using it a pleasure. It connects seamlessly with your Twitter and automatically suggests followers and their collections to you. You can view a stream of your followers latest collection additions and a searchable library page which contains all items posted.

It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for and I’ve really been enjoying creating my collections, I’ve got various web ones, ones for my hedgehog stuff and ones just to share with specific people. Obviously it’s web based too which gets around any syncing / browser issues. As I write this I’m starting to dust the cobwebs off my bookmarks and see if any are worth salvaging for my collections. It’s in private beta at the moment, so visit the site and sign up for an invite. My profile / collections are here.

I’m loving my new headphones, I’m a big fan of Incase and their latest product hasn’t disappointed. They look as you would expect from Incase, slick and minimal yet have amazing sound quality. Seriously far better than you would expect to get from in-ear headphones.

I get new headphones with loads of bass, what is the first song iTunes plays? Shakira -She Wolf (don’t judge me) #fail.

You can read more about them on the Incase site and for those of us in the UK, they are in store at Apple.

UNICEF have come up with an inventive new fund raising idea, naming all the colours displayed on smart phones / computers. Anyone can buy a colour and name it, the details of which will then be displayed on the wall. You can make any donation above £1 and share your newly acquired colour on Facebook and Twitter.

I went for #ff0084, the colour featured on this site. I’ve used this colour for almost as long as I’ve been using the web and doing so has sparked an offline quest to attempt to match things with it (the closest so far I would say is this nail varish, Cream Steamy by MAC).

Tributes left at the Cardiff St Davids Apple store. Thanks to @craigstrong for the pictures.

I have never cried over the death of a celebrity, or someone I have never met previous to October 5th 2011 and I would be suprised if I did again. I was sat on the floor browsing Twitter on my MacBook when I saw Tweets begin to flood in, stating Steve Jobs had passed away. When Steve Jobs retired from Apple earlier in the year, I had hoped it was to relax and concentrate on his health and family, rather him being terminally ill. Despite knowing he had been seriously ill, the news of his death came as a shock. There was a sense that the events unfolding would make history and that  we had been lucky to live through and be a part of it.

The world paid tribute, with heartfelt messages from celebrities and those who had personally known Jobs, being left across social networking sites. As with any notable deaths of the previous few years, Twitter became an eerie and emotional place, a feed of little other than messages of condolences, shock and sadness. The difference this time though was the raw emotion expressed by so many, most of which who had never met Steve Jobs. Twitter apparently struggled to keep up with the load in the early hours of that morning, millions of messages pouring in from the very devices he created, as Obama stated: “and there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented“.

I read through the messages in my Twitter feed; other designers, developers and creatives of all kinds passionately thanking him for the impact he had on their lives and careers. He is one of the greatest innovators of our time and he will no doubt be remembered for this, for as long as people are talking about technology.

It made me think about the effect he has had on my career and subsequently my life. As he himself said: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle“.

I have been enamoured with computers and the internet since I was ten years old. I’ve been experimenting with HTML since I was eleven and working in the web industry since I was seventeen. It’s a huge part of my life and goes so much further than just being a job. I consider myself to be one of the lucky few who get to do what they love for a living. From the outside looking in, people think I ‘do something with computers’, I imagine people assume it’s quite geeky, technical and boring. From the inside of the thriving web community, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve been constantly engaged by the quick paced, ever changing technologies we use and I’ve been able to learn about them from others doing the same. The internet makes so much possible, but what drives web development and design in my opinion is the community and people involved in it. It continuously evolves and changes, growing and thriving, pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve further and further. So much has changed in just ten years, it’s almost unrecognisable.

I consider Steve Jobs to be one of the key people who set that pace. He showed us you can pursue a dream and turn it into something amazing, from nothing. He taught us to never settle, to continue to innovate, design and imagine. He changed the way we consume content and information forever. He created the very machines we physically work on and the devices we communicate with daily. He changed the world as we know it.

Apple is one of the most iconic brands in the world, everything from the products they sell to the way in which they sell them has been meticulously thought out and designed. Knowing what humble beginnings it came from reminds anyone with a business, big or small, that anything is possible. In a time of global economic crisis, designers, developers and creatives all over the world are continuing to earn a living. From freelancers to big agencies, I think we have a lot to be proud of and in the face of difficult times can remember the famous quote from Steve Jobs:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… you can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Losing a life to cancer is tragic and sadly something which effects so many of us. It is no doubt going to be someone of a similar mindset, drive and passion to him, one of the crazy ones, that will one day find a cure for it.

RIP Steve.