No, I’m wondering why, in 2010, none of the following features are available on my online banking service:

• Drill down the data. Find out all my monthly outgoings by a particular vendor (e.g. Sainsbury’s) – how much do I spend at the super market)
• Allow me to assign codes and categories to types of purchase (food, clothes, travel) and query the data that way
• Get a forecast for my next month’s spend
• Display graphs on where my money is going. What % of my income is being spent at the Alma Tavern??
• Send me custom reports about my spending habits — and tips on how to make adjustments
• An export feature to tie in with my own off-line accounting
• an iPhone app to check statements on the move
• Probably loads of other stuff – ranging from the frivolous to the crucially useful

That’s with First Direct but I’ve also used NatWest and LloydsTSB in the not-too-distant and I’m pretty sure they don’t have anything like those features either.

Anyone bank with someone who does offer this and/or know of a third party extension that offers them?

All handled by javascript –

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Thanks Rich.

1. everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2. anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;
3. anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

Written nine years ago, the article dates a little; by the same token, with the years that have passed, it reminds us what a visionary Adams was. http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html

Saturday 13 May 1665

“But, Lord! to see how much of my old folly and childishnesse hangs upon me still that I cannot forbear carrying my watch in my hand in the coach all this afternoon, and seeing what o’clock it is one hundred times; and am apt to think with myself, how could I be so long without one; though I remember since, I had one, and found it a trouble, and resolved to carry one no more about me while I lived.”

Since that summer, I’ve frequently reflected on just what a valuable asset touch-typing is to me. But rarely do I consider that the vast majority of my friends and colleagues are without that particular skill — and what effect that has on them.

Two things got me thinking about this. Firstly, a tie-in piece I’m writing for Flux which touches on the same subject (and will appear in the next day or two) but secondly, seeing the time it took a colleague simply to type a URL (web address) into their browser.

What went through my head was: How long would it take this dude to write me an email or a report?

How long would it take this dude to write me an email?

With the emphasis on computer time in most workplaces (and our personal lives I suppose) I begin to wonder whether touch-typing should be taught in schools (if it isn’t already – anyone?) and be made a highly desirable skill for any office-based job advert.

Some reading around the topic of the “touch-typing edge” convinces me further. Take Web Design from Scratch‘s article on touch-typing. As he points out, “Unless you are made of wood, your brain can think a heck of a lot faster than your fingers can type. So your typing is certainly the bottleneck to your productivity.”

your brain can think faster than your fingers can type. So your typing is certainly the bottleneck to your productivity

Of course. Like a bottleneck in the road might make you battle on at the slower pace it might just as equally make you turn around and go home. Now I understand why so many of my long, chatty emails to friends go unanswered. Maybe it’s just a hint. But, also, maybe the thought process goes something like: “I can’t reply in 2 lines to this 10-paragrapher but I haven’t got time to write any more. I know — I’ll do it tomorrow. Or maybe the day after…”

The advantages of learning to touch-type are manifold:

• You can do things in less time, saving dozens of hours across a year
• It’s less mentally fatiguing
• It’s easier on your fingers
• It boosts your productivity

Taking all this into account:

• I probably gain at least 1 hour a week (maybe many hours) over my colleagues
• I’m more inclined to contact my friends, sharing news and writing back without procrastination
• When I write documents, reports, I can take more care over getting the right words and communicating the meaning. Because the initial write-up hasn’t been so arduous, I can devote more time to the edit (how many pidgin typists can bare to even read over their work for fear of finding a mistake and having to put it right?).
• I can code faster making me a more employable web designer :-)
• Less chance of RSI

So all I need to do is get my iphone typing up to the same speed and I’ll be laughing.

Purchase

There were amusing scenes at the Carphone Whorehouse in Bristol (triangle branch) where they weren’t able to sell a single handset due to the cash registers being down. My friend’s guess was that the store’s kit is security-programmed not to accept payments outside regular opening hours and no one thought to tell the IT guy to change it for the much-hyped but slightly naff “6:02 launch”. I’m sure CW would deny it but that sounds a pretty plausible explanation.

After 20 minutes of a queue moving nowhere – and not a hint of apology/explanation – I walked out the door and took my commission to a different store the next morning.

Setup

The thing that impressed me most about the whole experience was the ease of setting it up via iTunes, the seamless switching between tariffs and speed with which my new phone was up and on the network (under an hour).

Pleasant surprises

• The versatility and intuitiveness of the touch-screen. Peerless.
• The keyboard is easier to use than I had been led to believe, especially in comparison from my quasi-qwerty BlackBerry keyboard of the last 2 years.
• Wireless browsing. I didn’t even know about the free use of The Cloud wireless network before I bought the phone, but even without wireless I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the EDGE network (and its ease of switching between it and wi-fi when the latter becomes available). People have criticised Apple for choosing a 2G network that only covers 30% of the UK but on balance I prefer saving the battery life of my phone at the expense of a few more seconds page load.
• Battery life.
• The sound quality on the iPod. Now I know why people have been going on about them for so long. It really does sound better than my Creative player.
• Fully-supported javascript and css websites. Lush.
• Camera. It’s pretty good for 2 mega pixels – and so easy to edit/scale and assign to contacts
• iTunes. I’m not really into buying DRM protected digital music so haven’t looked into this yet. But I understand that, from your on-board iTunes player you can by tracks on the move and add them directly to your iPod. Now that’s the future!

Unpleasant surprises

Of course there is plenty that is undesirable about the iPhone but I can’t claim to be surprised by any of those, such has been the level of sniping over the past year and, notably in the UK, the past fortnight. However, there are a few nasty surprises which I wasn’t expecting and which border on the plain evil.

• The closed-ness of the whole thing. I don’t especially mind being tied to O2 for 18 months (well I’ve been with them for 10 years) and I don’t have any desire to deprive them of business (vis VoIP) but why can’t Apple open it up and allow me to add apps of my own? If you’re giving us internet, let us use the WHOLE internet? Skype for example…
• No flash on the safari browser. Haven’t found a reason for this yet (how is the YouTube app working?) but I suspect it’s all part of the policy of #1 above.
• US-centric. Surely they could have put some effort into making it a little more UK-targetted? I’m talking about small things like having to search to the 3rd keyboard screen for the pound (£) sign and the US-style roadsign on the Google Maps icon.
• A proprietary headphone socket (I will need to buy an adapter to use it with any standard headphones)
• Calendar synchronisation. I’m having difficulty synchronising it with my google calendar even though both support the ical protocol. In my itunes it simply says “no supported calendar has been found” but no help. Forums have yielded nothing so far. If anyone can help…

And this morning we learn that O2 have won the exclusive contract to sell the iPhone in the UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6272226.stm

Wow, for once, I’m with the right provider!
The iPhone has a number of shortcomings — notably its on-screen keyboard; but then what phone keyboard is easy to operate? — but by the time it reaches our shores (Christmas) it may even be a few software updates closer to perfection.

It’s a minor inconvenience, but more to the point is does the incessant updating of their software instil confidence in the performance and security of the product?

The results will display thumbnails of a particular item, let’s say pairs of boots, and you can filter boots according to features such as pattern, shape, colour etc and you can specify your price range all with the use of sliders (more sliders on the web please, they’re so cool!) and mostly with AJAX, so very few page refreshes.

In its current incarnation Like.com is severely limited — you can only search for jewelry, shoes, watches and handbags — and of no tangible use to me. But the interface is the most intuitive I’ve seen in search engines in a long time.