Rob Mansfield's stream of web

Cycle hire is here in London - what it looks like

So the long-awaited Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme has finally launched today in London, promising to bring convenient and cheap cycling to anyone who wants it.

It just so happens that one of the Cycle Hire points is just opposite our office, so I trundled over there this morning before I started work to check out the set-up.

As you can see above, there's a long row of bikes to hire - only three were 'out' when I got there this morning (on the assumption that the rack was full as it's the first day).

Then, sited midway along the rack, comes the control post. On one side, it shows a map of where you are in London and the nearest other hire places, if this one is empty.

On the most important side, is the tech bit allowing you to pay to unlock a bike and hire it, complete with the Code of Conduct.

It'll be interesting to see how many bikes are used in the first month while you have to be fully registered.

Boris Johnson has already admitted there will be teething troubles, but I doubt these will become obvious until the service gets a high usage.

Meanwhile, it's great to see that there's already an Android app, helping you find your nearest hire point.

Clever functionality and clever online marketing from Pilot

Pilot handwriting test

Spotted this very clever piece of marketing by Pilot pens on Twitter this morning and had to give it a try.

The essence to Pilot Handwriting is that you print off a template and fill it in with your own handwriting.

Then, using your webcam (or scanner if you possess such a thing), the template is scanned and turned into your very own personalised font - it acts as a sort of glorified OCR.

You can then send messages to whoever you wish, written in your own handwriting.

I used the webcam and it turned out OK, although I had to make a few edits (which you are cleverly allowed to do) to some of the characters.

By and large, though, it works incredibly well and the results are pretty impressive.

This marketing gimmick reminded me, though, of all the major effort that many companies put in to try and make commercially-viable accurate handwriting recognition software and hardware in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Even now, although most PDAs offer handwriting recognition, it's usually nowhere near as fast as typing and not as accurate either - idiosyncrasies make writing very difficult to recognise.

I may well use this a couple of times, just for fun, but I think we all accept that typing does the job well enough and, well, if you want to write a letter, pick up your own pen (Pilot or otherwise) and use snail mail instead.

- More creative fun on my Posterous

- More web fun on my Posterous

Shed of the Year 2010

Winner of Shed of the Year 2010

Sheds have become fashionable in recent years, haven't they? Gone are the days when a shed was somewhere to keep your lawnmower, assorted collection of tools, some plant pots and the rusting barbecue.

In the modern age, many men have foregone their competitive streak when it comes to cars and diverted it towards the bottom of the garden.

Not only must they be a comfortable place to sit, so they can escape the FPO*, they need Wifi, a collection of boys toys, and all sorts of other paraphernalia.

This year's Shed of the Year has been won by Reg Miller from Southend, who named his rather elaborate construction The Lady Sarah out of Worthing, after his dear lady wife.

- You can find out more about Reg's shed and see more pics over on Shedblog

- There's a whole Shed community out there, too: Readers' Sheds

(*Fun Prevention Officer)

10 Outstanding Social Media Infographics

via nowsourcing.comand @paulbradshaw

These are very US focused, but really interesting, all the same.

This is one that should be shown to all relevant parties within organisations who want to embrace social media.

Why doctoring photos will become easier than ever

via youtube.com

To some of you, this is probably old news, but I was genuinely blown away by how easy Photoshop now makes it to remove seemingly crucial elements of a photo.

Never again will that irritating lamp-post, foreign tourist or former friend have to clutter up a favourite image ever again.

This video shows you how simple it will be to patch up and repair photos once Photoshop CS5 is released.

If you have even the most rudimentary knowledge of photography and image editing, prepare to be amazed.

Why Grazia's augmented reality app only scratched the surface

via graziadaily.co.uk

There's been lots of talk about augmented reality (AR) over the past couple of years and, with the rise of the iPhone, 2010 has been identified as the year it could really become a mainstream proposition.

For those of you who don't know or understand the concept of AR, quite simply it's adding extra information and features to your field of vision to enhance your understanding.

An example that's already in use on TV is the virtual yellow line that was used during swimming events at the Olympics to show the current world record time, compared with the race you're watching.

So far, augmented reality hasn't gone properly mainstream, but this week's Grazia magazine has taken a large step in that direction.

Using cover star Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine, you can download an iPhone app or use your webcam and see her come to life and start singing on the cover. Then there are further 'augmented experiences' inside the magazine.

The idea is ambitious and the fact that's it's one of the most popular women's magazines on the market shows a willingness by the usually-slow offline publishing world to embrace new technologies.

Clearly, they have an eye on expanding revenue streams in the future, yet it's basically a direct rip-off of something US Esquire did back in November 2009.

What's interesting, though, is that it's not really augmented reality, as we've come to expect it in the tech world. In Grazia and Esquire's case, it's more behind the scenes video. The whole joy of AR is to superimpose something onto your natural view.

The new Get London Reading campaign has done this brilliantly with an iPhone app that floats relevant book covers onto the London street you're standing in, eg Sherlock Holmes books, if you're in Baker Street.

Taking things one step further is the amazing work done by Bing Maps and showcased at this year's TED conference back in February.

Blaise Agüera y Arcas heads up the team at Microsoft, who have created the wonderful AR technology that is possible via Bing Maps, and his talk, below, left many onlookers breathless.

This kind of functionality is only the beginning and, while Grazia's move is a bold one for magazines, it shows the gulf between different markets' perception of what augmented reality really is.

via ted.com

How the web keeps products for going longer

via espares.co.uk

Our dishwasher door stopped closing last week and, rather than calling up for a repairman, I did what more and more people are doing - turned to the web for help.

First of all, I searched for forum discussions to see if anyone else had experience the same problem.

On our Hotpoint dishwasher, it seems to be a common problem - the spring lock breaking.

Having discovered the problem, I then turned to one of the multitude of online parts stores - espares.

For just over £10 and after a couple of days' wait, the new door lock turned up.

And then within less than 30 minutes, I'd fitted the new lock and the dishwasher was finished.

The point is, not to boast about my pathetic DIY skills, more that it's so easy to find replacement parts, along with videos of how to fit them online.

More often than not, the fitting of the new part is really easy and something that anyone could take on. And best of all, it saves money on call-out fees.

On an environmental tack, the availability of spares will hopefully reduce the constant merry-go-round of buying something new, as soon as the old things breaks.

More proof that the web really can make things easier for people.

Noticing things around you

via noticin.gs

Online gaming has never really appealed to me - too many guns and peculiarly out-of-proportion, bikini-clad, computer-generated babes for my liking.

So the world of noticings is a genuinely, pleasant surprise.

The aim of the game is to take photos of interesting things while you're out and about and then upload them to flickr, giving them relevant tags (including a geotag), so they can be entered into the game.

Players get awarded points for different things, such as spotting faces in everyday objects/architecture, noticing something every day for a week or being the first to spy something in a neighbourhood.

It's a charming, simple and quirky idea that has quickly built a mini-community, and achieves the Holy Grail, which is encourage users to come back day after day.

Noticings is also the kind of site you want to stay fairly niche for fear of it losing its charm, but I'm sure a few hundred more users won't hurt it just yet.

- Join the noticings game today

Why Ocado is always ahead of the game

Can any of you remember when supermarkets didn't do home delivery? It may be tough to recall now, but there was a time not that long ago when those little Tesco/Sainsbury's/Ocado vans didn't spend their days speeding round full of crates and placky bags.

Tesco was lauded early on for being first out of the gates, but it was the arrival of Ocado in 2001, a separate company from Waitrose, that really shook the market up and has since been responsible for much of the innovation in the supermarket e-grocery sphere.

Waitrose may be the most expensive of the regular supermarkets, but, via Ocado, it managed to set itself apart with little things that, initially, the more discerning customers found endearing and a reason to shop online at Waitrose.

None of these were particularly revolutionary, but the fact that drivers carried your shopping all the way into your kitchen (and still continue to do) was something that customers talked about.

It has always operated a warehouse-run business, so you'll rarely be offered a substitution - if the item is in stock when you order, you'll get it.

And, while plastic bags are admittedly seen as environmentally bad, putting your items into different coloured bags depending on their type (fridge, store cupboard, etc) was also a very clever, if small differentiation point, not least because the bags were also biodegradable and recycled.

More recently Waitrose/Ocado has begun to itemise customers' bills by 'best before' date, enabling you to arrange your shopping based on the likelihood of fresh produce going off. Again, small but significant, but an area where they've stolen a march on the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury's.

And the killer offer recently has been to offer the same produce that Waitrose sells in-store cheaper online. Internet-only prices have even reached the supermarkets and it has helped Ocado to more than 25% y-o-y profits.

Now surely the new battleground is going to be mobile. And, of course, Ocado has got there way before the others. Last July it released an iPhone app, allowing you to do your online delivery from the comfort of the train/bus/office, without the need for your regular computer.

A full 7 months later and nothing similar has appeared from their competitors. Sure, Tesco has an app to help you find your local store and a loyalty card app, but that's very different from the ability to be able to shop without going to the supermarket.

The fact that neither Tesco nor Sainsbury's has managed to release something similar is a major flaw in their marketing.

Of course, the accusation could be levelled that iPhones are generally owned by the middle classes, who in turn are more susceptible to shopping at Waitrose. But that's basically rot. Sainsbury's is just as middle-class and Tesco has such a wide customer base that there will be just as many smartphone users who shop there as anywhere else.

Put simply, Ocado is clearly a forward-thinking company that values customer satisfaction and delights in offering things that they know will be appreciated and help them stay one step ahead.

Who really wants to track their drink?

We all like a drink, don't we? Well, unless you're of a religious nature who shuns booze, or one of the people who've enjoyed it so much in the past that they now can't enjoy it any more.

But by and large, alcohol in the UK is an acceptable part of our everyday social lives. And, as we all know, we drink too much in the UK, apparently. Reports in the media constantly try to convince us that boozing is getting way out of control and that we're all drinking ourselves into an early grave.

So with grim inevitability, the Internet wants to lend us a hand to work out - yes, there are now a number of apps or sites who are dedicated to drink tracking - making sure we keep a tally of our boozy habits.

But who seriously wants to write down that they drank a bottle of sauvignon blanc and two shots of vodka on Friday, followed by a couple of pints and the rest of that ropey old bottle of port on Saturday night - week after week.

I know it's all about 'helping you drink responsibly', but will noting it all down (providing you can remember) make any difference?

I tried out the NHS iPhone app in the run-up to Christmas and found it a dismal experience. OK, it functioned fine, but it didn't exactly do anything for me. Some days my drink was well over the 'acceptable' limit, but most of the time it wasn't - making me realise how little I drink!

The NHS isn't the only one out there, though. There's Drinklogger which is aimed squarely at mobile users and still in the Beta phase.

Then there's Drinktracker, which you actually have to pay $1.99 for - not a great incentive, I must admit and, while it looks nice and functions OK, doesn't really make me feel any more responsible or, in fact, wayward.

Interesting market but, as yet, the need to track your tequila doesn't really do it for me.