Liam (cor, he’s a bit late to this one, but I’ll let him off…) liked PhoneGap – an HTML5 app platform that lets you write native applications for the popular mobile phone app stores. You basically write your app in HTML5, throw it to their build platform, and get a submission ready iPhone app. Sexy.

He also reckons that Mootools is better than jQuery: “…and that is a scientific fact that I can’t back up with facts other than a promise and a picture of a kitten”. Mootools 1.4.1 is now available and there is also a rather sexy modal framework for it available this week too. Go have a play.

Paul’s regular weekly FailWatch found this rather disturbing report: apparently the network of machines responsible for controlling the US’s fleet of drones has been compromised by key logging viruses that appear to be immune to attempts to remove them. Only this morning Paul then came across this piece describing how the unit’s officials kept things to themselves, neglecting to tell the 24th Airforce, who are supposed to be responsible for info-security in the USAF. Which is nice.

Paul’s next Fail: the Blackberry network went down for extended periods over two days (and I’m seeing more stuff in my Twitter stream which implies things are still not 100% sorted..) – and more coverage from the excellent Daily Mash.

…and his Final Fail: In a demonstration that you can recover from major fail without losing too much of your dignity, Netflix announced that they were backing out of their planned spinning off of the DVD part of the business as Qwikster. It’s good to see a management team with the balls to admit when they’ve done something dumb, and back-pedal.

Adam dug up two interesting pieces on evaluating the effectiveness of a design for conversion and questions you should be asking yourself whilst designing: This from 37 Signals, and this from Cennydd Bowles.

Andrew pointed out that we’re noticing a significant rise in the number of requests for iphone apps from clients here at Storm. As such he was interested in this article that goes into detail about the common unknown user functions available in devices such as the iphone and ipad. Always good to step back for a moment and remember that not everybody using the device you’re designing for is as au fait as you are with it…

For me the bookmark of the week goes to this totally ridiculous demo video of some new (and without any doubt at all – entirely black magic) technology called Patch Match. If you thought Photoshop’s ”Content Aware Fill” was cool, just check this out…

…Liam was confused by people not understanding that the iPhone 4S is the iPhone 5 (not to mention the shameless ripping off by Apple of Google Latitude…). Meanwhile, he bookmarked: Amazon’s new Kindle without keyboard now shipping in the UK (but apparently UK folks don’t get the Kindle Touch, or ad-supported Kindles). He also discovered the reasonably awsome Layer Styles which lets you use a Photoshop-like web interface to build complex CSS3 shadows and borders. Nice!

Layer Styles: nice. New iCal design: not nice. Nicola: “REVOLTING. It’s not Apple’s sexy style, looks dated and ugly – it has ‘stitching’…”. Ouch.

Andrew’s bookmarks included this Smashing Magazine blog post on Conversation Techniques for Designers which he says will come in handy as he spends more time liaising with clients than doing design work…

Paul tells me it’s been another bad week for security: Russian software company Elcomsoft announced that they could recover Blackberry device passwords, while a massive security hole in HTC’s Android phones allows any app with permission to talk to the internet to extract any private information from the phone…

From Adam: “Cube is really neat looking open-source system for visualizing time series data created by disruptive credit card processing start-up Square. It let’s you really easy build a realtime dashboard of anything that can be tracked over time. It uses some very clever data processing techniques to deliver results as quickly as possible. It’s definitely a library I’m now looking for a reason to use!”

And finally – from me, another stunning example of how Amazon is building fiercely loyal customers by going way beyond the call of duty with their customer service. I’ve had a similar experience with the ‘zon when my Kindle case malfunctioned – instant phone call, totally intelligent customer service person, instant money back into my account. This is how it should be done…

Cake fine? Clearly it should be Dave for 1) Failing to contribute and 2) Being on holiday :-)

Adam went with the viral flow (sounds painful) by picking the now-famous video of Alessio Rastani telling us “The Collapse Is Coming”:

This – as with any viral – was followed with claims of hoax, counter claims of not a hoax, some very angry people, and even a suggestion that Rastani might be a member of infamous activist group Yes Men. Who knows, but it made for fascinating / terrifying / interesting watching either which way.

Meanwhile, as our financial system crumbles around our ears, Liam’s bookmarks included the news that Apple is ready to talk iPhone on October 4th. Possibly as exciting but slightly less fan-boyish, Amazon announced is announcing (right now as I write this, actually), a range of new Kindles, including a $79 version and a $199 Android touchscreen version. Crazy prices, and it’ll be fascinating to watch how this mixes up (or doesn’t) the mobile / tablet ecosystem.

Liam also pointed me to this long but interesting post about the crazy, complicated and backwards US patent system. The main point it makes is that the way we use the patent system is wrong – definitely worth spending the time to have a read.

My personal favourite link was the niche-but-useful service that is Ajaxload. It does what it says on the tin – an ajax loading icon generator. Handy.

Paul sent me a link to http://cheat.errtheblog.com – “a godsend especially if you are a Ruby / Rails Dev”..

Felix’s favourite bookmark was for the HTML email boilerplate. He said this: ”If ever a boilerplate was needed, it was for HTML email. I not only bookmarked this, I downloaded it and burnt it onto multiple CD-Rs stashed generously around Bath to ensure my wellbeing will never be torn to shreds by Outlook 97 again.”. Better look at that, then.

Dave’s favourite of the week is Browserstack - one of the best tools we’ve seen for cross-browser testing to date. It boasts such gems as debugging tools and a huge list of browsers - more about the features here. Browserstack is currently in private Beta, but well worth getting your name in the queue. When it launches, it won’t be cheap – it’ll be $19 a month for one user, however you can also buy pre-paid plans. $19 gets you 10 hours of testing time. Definitely one to watch.

Finally – we’ve been having a great deal of discussion at Storm about the merits of displaying work we’ve done on the Storm homepage and to what degree we show it. Just at the right time this blogpost came along via Andrew, hugely helpful in showing us the many unique ways of displaying one’s work effectively online.

Here are my top 11 reasons for buying an iPhone.

We’re big iPhone fans here at Storm – hopefully the list below will show you why!

#1 – iPod

One of my favourite iPhone features is the iPod functionality. Essentially your phone comes with an iPod touch, with all the features and performance you can expect from the Touch. The large majority of people who are put off from buying the iPhone cite higher cost as their reason, yet are happy to shell out for an iPod (or equivalent music player). With the new iPhone rumored to have a 32Gb hard drive, the potential to put all of your music and video on one device is a big iPhone plus.

#2 – Style

The iPhone is undoubtedly one of the nicest looking mobile phones on the market. Its vivid 3.5″ screen encased in a sleek chrome and black housing is not only good looking, but surprisingly durable. The iPhone screen – protected by toughened glass – is very hard to scratch!

#3 – Ease of Use / GUI

The iPhone user interface has led the way forward for touch screen devices. Its fast and responsive system makes browsing the device very intuitive. Even the touch keyboard becomes second nature within a couple of weeks of use.

#4 – Web, Wi-Fi and 3G

Prior to the iPhone, mobile Internet browsing was sluggish and very limited (WAP, GPRS and Edge). With the iPhone 3G you not only get fast browsing speed, but a well thought out browsing interface. Use of the iPhone’s multi-touch technology means that you can scale or zoom fully HTML pages.

#5 – Push Services

This is actually a feature which will come into maturity in the next software update for iPhone (3.0 – due in the next month or so). The iPhone will already ‘push’ any emails, diary dates and contacts to your mobile phone, but with the latest software release you will be able to receive further alerts, ‘pushed’ to your phone such as News alerts, Social Networking alerts etc.

#6 – Social Networking

The iPhones 3G Internet capability means that you can stay connected to your social networks (Twitter, Facebook etc) on the go. You are able to catch up with your friends and post photos and updates straight from the phone. Without devices such as the iPhone, services like Twitter would almost certainly not be as popular as they are today.

#7 – Games

Who doesn’t love a few fun games on their mobile to aid with procrastination? The iPhone is the first mobile phone to truly provide high quality games – some of which are more than capable of competing with hand held gaming consoles such as the Nintendo DS or PSP. And whats more, the games for iPhone are generally much cheaper and receive frequent updates for free.

#8 – GPS and Google Maps

The iPhone has the benefit of having a GPS receiver built in. Unlike many other phones which merely triangulate their position via telephone masts, the iPhone can actually pin your location on a Google Map, plan a route and feed you instructions as you walk or drive the route.  The GPS functionality also allows for a host of location aware applications – being able to find the nearest.. Train Station, Bus Route, Bar, Hospital etc, or finding out which of your friends are near you.

#9 – App Store

The app store has really set the iPhone apart from pretty much any other mobile device. You can grab any number of fantastic applications that extend the native functionality of the iPhone. There are plenty of free apps to get stuck into, along side the reasonably priced ‘paid’ apps. Even these are usually under £2! Some of my favourites include: Facebook, Tweetie & Skype for keeping in touch with the world; Shazam for finding the names of songs by holding your phone to a speaker, Pocket God (clue is in the name) and BounceOn (hours of fun!)

#10 – Software updates

Another feature that Apple brought forward with the iPhone is software updating. Apple are constantly improving your iPhone, for free! – bringing you new and improved features.  You also have the option of purchasing major upgrades for a nominal fee, normally under £10 – giving you access to a whole host of new toys to play with.

#11 – All in your palm

What I love the most about the iPhone is that you get all of the above, and much much more, in the palm of you hand. That’s a mobile phone, a games console, an iPod, a GPS navigation device and a portable computer running Skype, email and documents. Anyone who complains about the extra few ££ or $$ for that level of functionality really is missing out!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the iPhone below! What do you love the most? Or what do you hate! What would you like to see in the next iPhone?