Ladybird Classic Me Books has been included in The Telegraphs Top iOS apps for Children 2011. Shane Richmond, Head of Technology writes:

A sizeable dose of nostalgia for parents along with plenty of entertainment for children. The Me Books app gives you access to digital versions of the classic Ladybird books that have been around since the 1940s. The The books are narrated by a range of celebrities, including David Jason and Adam Buxton, and it’s possible to record your own version too.

Apps Magazine has published their 2011 Award winners and Ladybird Classic Me Books was named ‘Best Entertainment App of the Year’. To top it off it also picked up SILVER in the ‘App of the Year’ category. 

I disagree with the idea that you can design websites without coding them, but here you go, Adobe are about to release Muse, a product (free for now) which promises just that.

Is it going to be better than Photoshop mockups? I think so.
Is it going to make better websites? I don’t think so.

This is a step in the wrong direction as Elliot Jay Stocks puts it, and from a company which is trusted by so many designers. Adobe seems to suggest that you (print-based designers, that is) can just keep doing what you’re doing and this magical piece of software will handle scary code and all that boring stuff for you.

I am not proposing that print-based designers stay away from webdesign unless they are willing to become code monkeys, but I believe that webdesigners should understand the habitat of their designs (the Web), as well as using the Web’s fabric (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) to design good websites. Cause we don’t make static pictures of webpages, we craft live, accessible, interactive experiences.

I went to iOS Tech Talk in London the other week and had the chance to listen to some inspirational talks and also learn some new tricks. So i was very excited to get a call to do a prototype for a new startup. This client is really thinking differently and I needed to use rapid prototyping techniques.

I’ve found it exhilarating how easy iOS5 makes prototyping. Storyboards, ARC, Core Image, PageViewControllers, Twitter integration came to good use . Very excited for what’s lying ahead. 

CC Image courtesy of torkristensen on Flickr

We often receive some strange phone calls over at milo HQ but I was taken by complete surprise when I was invited to an afternoon ‘High Tech Tea’ with the Dutch Prime Minsiter Mark Rutte and Eric van der Kleij (CEO of Tech City) to discuss opportunities for collaboration between creative companies in London’s Tech City and Holland.

It will be interesting to see how London’s Technology Cluster will develop over the coming year and whether it can loose the rather belittling ‘Silicon Roundabout’ tag - originally coined by Dopplr.com CTO Matt Biddulph on Twitter - that has been so lovingly adopted by the technology press in general.