We got home pretty late yesterday after a long afternoon in the beautiful Brixham Harbour. The sea is so clear around there and we even saw a seal swimming around. I stopped off at Sainsbury’s on the way back to the caravan and picked up some Heinz Tomato Soup to keep everyone’s hunger at bay while I cooked dinner. It wasn’t until I’d emptied the first tin in the pan that I realised there was something different about it. I examined the label and saw that I’d bought three tins of Heinz Tomato Soup (with a touch of basil). Luckily, the boys were too hungry to care and even Louis ate it all up. But it did make me wonder about the tactic. Heinz Tomato Soup is all about familiarity, warmth and trust. We were essentially tricked by the packaging into buying a product we didn’t want and I don’t think that’s good marketing.

It’s a bit of bug-bear to me, but the beauty of the iPhone is the way most of the apps deal elegantly with the issue of no Internet connection. I often can’t get a connection on my train commute to London, and right now I’m in the middle of Devon with a really intermittent connection. So it’s the first time that I’ve realised that StickyBits simply doesn’t work at all unless you have an Internet connection. There’s no reason at all why StickyBits shouldn’t allow you to scan barcodes and store them for when an internet connection is available.

We really just stumbled upon the beautiful village of Stoke Gabriel as we walked aimlessly down the country paths near Peignton, Devon. The first place we stopped was the Church House Inn, which was idyllically placed next to an orchard and a church. The boys found new energy to play in the lovely playground next to the pub, while Helen and I relaxed in the sun with a drink. I knew there was a river nearby, and we soon found it. The setting was so perfect that I couldn’t help but be envious of the people who lived there. A dam in the river created a huge pool shared by swans and children in kayaks. Along the dam, families were catching crustaceans of varying types, and it was a timeless scene of simple pleasure.

What really impressed me though, was the River Shack: a cafe that could compete with the best in London, set right alongside the river in this hidden area of Devon. I’d love to know the story of how this place came to be, and who runs it. They were out of cream teas by the time we got there but the Tregothnan tea and cream cake were just right. The service was friendly; tea was served in a proper pot, and the atmosphere was one of complete relaxation.

Stoke Gabriel is firmly on my list of places I’d like to live.

Topshop is using SCVNGR to target back-to-school consumers with offers linked to SCVNGR challenges.

This is the first brand I’ve heard of to use SCVNGR so I’ll be watching out for it, as soon as I get back from Devon.

I’m very tempted by the £89 HP TouchPad in Currys, UK. At a price like that you can use it as a web browser and it really doesn’t matter that it’s a dead duck as a platform.

Google has started to map the River Amazon. It seems to be a long time coming, but the world’s a big place. I’d like to see Microsoft up the ante with a crocodile-cam.

Evernote has rolled out rich text support across iOS but I have to say I never wanted it. For note-taking, speed and simplicity is everything for me. IOS’s ‘Notes’ app would be fine if it wasn’t connected with an email account. I want the simplicity of Windows’ Notepad app combined with cloud backup, ultra fast startup and iPhone accessibility. Until that’s solved I really don’t need rich text support.

I generally have a hate-hate relationship with the iPhone’s auto-correct feature. I’m a fairly accurate typist with my thumb so the times that the auto-correct kicks in are largely unhelpful, leaving me having to delete a word that I didn’t even type, and then re-type the same word, being more careful this time to delete the correction suggestion.

Today, though, I was in a client meeting without my Moleskine. Leaving the room wasn’t an option and writing notes on scraps of paper wasn’t a great option as I’d then have to copy them into my note book.

So I fired up Notes on my iPhone and got to typing as quickly as I could. I discovered that with the help of the auto-correction feature I could type with one finger as quickly as I could write, with the advantage that the notes are already in digital format, making the follow-up email twice as quick.

I did end up with a sore thumb though so I don’t think it’s a good long term solution.

I opened the new LinkedIn iPhone app for the first time tonight, coming home on the train. The first thing it did was turn my music off so it could play a couple of sound effects on an animation. Thanks for that, LinkedIn. App closed. Music back on. I hate apps that do that. Skype does it too and there’s no need for it. All it does is annoy the people who actually use the service.

Every morning on the train to work, I fire up Byline on my iPhone and read through my RSS feeds. It’s my version of the morning newspaper and the user journey needs to be as smooth as I want my commuter journey to be. I always come across the same few mistakes so I thought I’d create a checklist for how to configure the RSS feed experience for mobile users. Continue reading ’6 RSS Feed Tips for Targeting Train Commuters’