Portent

This application costs money (£3.99) but for me it’s worth it. If you are connected to your iPhone on a wifi network you can access files on the iPhone via a WedDav interface. This means for example that you can map a network drive in Windows or your Mac/Linux box to it and copy files by drag/drop. The screenshot shows it mapped on my PC with a gif file I copied there.

Other features include security via login+password (or disabled) and a quota set on the storage so you don’t take up too much room. Best of all is that files lets you view many file types including Office 2007 and graphics files like the gif file shown above. Copy Mp3 files and ‘view them’ plays them.

I like the clever use of transparency when you are viewing files. You get the full height of the display but touch the screen at the bottom/top and you can set a bookmark, move to the top/bottom of the file and of course delete it. You can also delete files from the list by the usual swipe to get the delete button up.

it’s a handy way to move files and doubly secure by only having access when the files app is running and if that’s not enough then having to login. It also (dare I say it) means I guess that a number of users might be able to swap files if they were all logged into the same wifi. You’d need a PC for that of course. It would be a nice touch to have iPhone <=> iPhone file moving as well (hint!) but that’s not currently supported. Recommended!

Link (to iPhone App Store)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Maps, especially online have always been restrictive in what you can do with them due to copyright etc. But there has been an international movement dedicated to providing unrestricted alternatives and as you can see, this map of my part of London is pretty good. I’ve put a blue rectangle around the area in the top map which the bottom map shows.

Like Google Maps you can zoom in and out and drag the map. No satellite data of course!

Not all streets are currently labelled- mine isn’t, but I could sign up and add it in. As more and more people sign up this becomes more and more valuable. One danger is of course that people will be lazy and copy data from commercial or copyright maps and that could be a problem. It’s not unknown for cartographers to introduce fake streets etc to try and spot when people copy their work.

So if you have a spare moment or two, why not help this map by signing up (no costs) and adding your local information.
Link

Popularity: 16% [?]

If you want to find out statistics about the UK, jobs, population, etc the National Statistics website is an excellent source. Most of the material there is Crown Copyright which means it can be quoted or used so long as you acknowledge the source and don’t try and do anything stupid like sell it.

While looking for something there I came across the map shown which shows which areas have received the most immigrants (legal ones that is) between 2004 and 2006. Living in the South East it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the whole world lives here but in fact as the map shows, immigrants have settled in many parts of the UK, even 22 in Larne (in N. Ireland) where I took my driving test 30 years ago!

The picture and link below link to a PDF.
PDF Link

Popularity: 8% [?]

This is run by IBM, part of one of their research groups. It lets anyone upload data sets on anything at all and then display it using one of a number of visualisation methods such as statistical charts, maps, word trees or even tags. It’s completely free and anyone can use it. Nice looking website as well with tutorials on how to upload, and a blog.

The chart shown took 2005 data for the money earmarked by Federal Govt per state on a per capita basis. I.e. I’d guess it’s the total spent on each state divided by the number of inhabitants. Alaska came out well!

Link

Popularity: 9% [?]

I’m always on the lookout for sources of data on the web. Creating websites and writing software as I do, there is an amazing amount opf resources if you know where to look.

The geography network is one such source. As they says “The Geography Network is a global network of geographic information users and providers. It provides the infrastructure needed to support the sharing of geographic information among data providers, service providers, and users around the world. Through the Geography Network, you can access many types of geographic content including dynamic maps, downloadable data, and more advanced Web services.”

There’s an excellent widget that lets you select the area and then you can list the data sources available for that area. Not everyone needs or uses geographical data but if you do…

Mind you, they do have some weird ideas about how the web works, in particular hyper-linking to their site. D’uh- chaps. Do you ask every search engine to fill in one of these forms? If not then why should other people?

Link

Popularity: 9% [?]