To help both myself and my customers I decided I needed a better system to keep all of this data in order, I had two main issues, first was keeping all of my clients contact details, including domain names and hosting purchased from me, as well as their login details for site administration, webmail and ftp, the second was billing and invoicing clients for any work I have done for them.

The simplest and most effective option I could find was ‘Wallet’, by acrylic, for storing all my clients details in one place, with the added benefit of iPhone syncing, which means I now have access to all of my customers details no matter where I am, if I ever get an email from a client in a panic having misplaced their ftp password whilst I’m perusing the coffee section in the supermarket I can simply copy and paste the required details into an email from my iPhone!

For billing and invoicing I needed an application for tracking time spent working on projects that was simple to use yet flexible enough to accommodate various rates of billing such as flat rate and timed. I initially looked at ‘Billings3′, and whilst it’s a brilliant application I found during my free trial that the interface and features were more complex than I needed, the invoice templating system also seems difficult to use.

It was whilst browsing for alternatives that I found ‘OnTheJob’ by StuntSoftware, it has a beautiful interface and is very easy to use, the invoice templating is a joy to use, just drag and drop required elements onto the page!, ok maybe it lacks the reporting of Billings3 however I don’t think that’s something I’ll need.

All dekoded customers now also benefit from having their project files mirrored and backed up, which means protection from hard drive failure and accidental deletion.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all existing dekoded clients for their custom, and if you are reading this and still haven’t decided who to trust with your website needs then I hope this post shows that dekoded treats it’s customers needs and concerns with the priority they deserve, we want to give you a level of service that we can be proud of!

I’ve just discovered a great app for the iPhone, it’s called ‘Simplify Media’ and it’s amazing!

Basically this app, along with come client software which installed on your host computer, allows you to stream your itunes music to your iPhone, you can even create shared playlists and share either all or selected music with your friends.

I’m surprised that this app has been released, as it allows music files to be shared and I imagine this could harm music sales from the iTunes store?

This app also has the benefit for those who have limited storage space left on their iPhone memory.

Although this app also works on the iPod Touch, the iPhone has a huge advantage as files can be streamed even over a relatively slow phone connection, it takes a while to buffer songs when not in range of a 3G network but it does still work.

The only downside that I can see is that a host computer needs to be running all the time and obviously a home broadband connection is required, this would be a great use for an old laptop or computer, if I upgrade my trusty old MacBook then I think I’ll keep it as a media server as it’s very cheap to run compared to a desktop PC.

Go here to find out more: http://www.simplifymedia.com/