Three offers the iPhone 4S on the “one plan” which, simply put, gives you the most minutes, texts and data for your money bar none.  Vodafone, Orange and O2 simply cannot compete with this package. The price of the “one plan” was fantastic, however the feedback I received by my current provider, Vodafone along with my peers was worrying, considering I was tied into a  2 year contract. The moans, groans and horror stories of how poor Three is as a company in terms of network coverage, and customer service echoed in my mind as I put pen to paper on a 2 year contract for the iPhone 4S on the “one plan”. Little did I know at the time that ignoring the negative feedback would be one of the best decisions I have made when it came to mobile phones.

As a resident of Formby, a small village near Southport in the North West of England I was used to having poor network coverage; I was lucky to have 1 bar of signal at home with my previous provider Vodafone and most of the time people who contacted me would end up listening to my boring recorded voicemail and don’t get me started how awful it was trying to call or text a friend.

A few months into my contract with Three, I can honestly say that I am delighted I made the decision to go with Three. I have never had network coverage as strong on any other network and the uptime of my 3G coverage is unrivalled and I include all the other networks in that.  It’s rather ironic that the people who told me to avoid Three now ask to borrow my phone to check their Facebook or send the latest tweet as they don’t seem to have any network coverage.

Finally, it is true that Three’s customer service is located overseas and this for some people may be an issue however I am of the opinion that there customer service is every bit as good as its much larger competitors who’s monthly contract fees are far more.

Three have allowed me due to their excellent network service to get the most out of my iPhone 4S and coupled with the fact they were by far the cheapest option around I would recommend anybody thinking of purchasing an iPhone 4S for personal use to seriously consider Three.

Ciceley Parts

Use the Registration Lookup facility on www.ciceleyparts.com to find genuine Mercedes Benz commercial vehicle parts with next day delivery.

Adhering to the strict Mercedes Benz corporate guidelines, PJ Web is pleased to announce the launch of a new parts website for Ciceley Commercials in Blackburn to sit alongside their existing commercial vehicles website.

The site uses a VRM look-up to access all appropriate Mercedes Benz spare parts housed in the online parts database.  The import of the product information posed interesting technical issues which we were able to resolve because of our in-house knowledge and experience.  The site comes with full shopping basket and checkout and links to the secure PayPal payment system.

Jason Lee - Web Developer

Jason qualified as an Audio & Video Engineer from Salford in 1993 and initially started out at Manchester Metropolitan University as an AV Technician. Whilst there he developed some of the earliest web projects for the University including their online prospectus. Having done 2 stints in the private sector and 1 more in the public sector, Jason decided it was time to expand his skills and move on to a company that could present plenty of diversity and opportunity for personal development. Self taught, Jasons’ skills include (X)HTML, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, MySQL and Photoshop. Jason prides himself with a keen eye for detail!

He will be taking responsibility for a few key accounts for PJ Web, as well as developing new web projects for the company.

It’s also possible to analyse how visitors use the site by setting up “events” and “goals” that will track visitor actions.

The information that Google Analytics provides can be extremely powerful if it is set up and processed correctly.  It’s an ideal way of determining your websites’ strengths and highlights areas of your site that can be improved. Here’s a quick ‘How To’ guide of how to go about setting up Google Analytics for your website.

Step 1

You will need to create a Google Account in order to gain access to Google Analytics; this is free and will give you access to other Google services as well as Analytics. To create your account visit www.google.com/accounts/ and follow the step by step instructions on how to sign up.

Step 2

After you have created your Google account the next step is to visit the Google Analytics web site – www.google.com/analytics – and click on the sign up button at the top right hand side of the screen. You will then be prompted to sign in using your Google account username and password and you’ll be directed to the following webpage where you need to sign up to analytics.

After logging in you will then be prompted to enter details about your website etc, this is all self explanatory if you follow the instructions provided.  See the  illustration below.

The account name will be the name of the report produced for your website. If you leave this section blank, it will default to your website’s web address.

The next steps are simply adding your contact details and accepting Google’s term and conditions.

Step 3

If everything above has been entered correctly, HTML code will be generated and displayed in the box. This is the code which effectively analyses your website and provides you with the information on your visitors. This is the page you should now be on:

Finally click ‘Save and Finish’ at the bottom of the page and you are complete.

If you would like PJ Web to insert this code on your website, please contact us on support@pjweb.co.uk.

We also offer an enhanced service as part of a full SEO campaign or as a standalone service.  This includes:

• Full briefing meeting to discuss your goals
• Advice on events and goals that can be added to your website
• Regular reporting on web traffic, trends and behaviour
• How to use the information to make website improvements

For more information contact Chris on 01204 328580

Just to get it out of the way, I’m not what would be described as an Apple fan boy. I don’t own an iPhone, nor a Mac; I have a first-gen iPod touch which I rarely use. I’m used to Windows products and I’m not particularly big on trying to impress my personal tech preferences onto others. Usually.After queuing in a PC World for an hour on Friday, I came home with the iPad model I’d wanted (a 16gb 3G model). My reasons for wanting it (I could try to convince myself I needed it – but I didn’t think I did, it was pretty much impulsive) were mainly:

• Portable TV
• (iPlayer, ITV, Sky Sports)
• Twitter
• Email
• Newspapers
• Media Centre

I don’t have a TV in my bedroom or the kitchen, and I will soon be moving a long way away from home, so the fact it could be used as a TV added value for me. I use twitter quite a lot (most mornings when I wake up, I spend around an hour catching up on tweets, email and my RSS feeds) and I don’t use e-mail enough for communicating with other people. I’m finding less and less time to sit-down with a newspaper and read it in one sitting so the ability to do that was a bonus. I also download a couple of TV series, and have started digitising my movies. The ability to stick a couple of movies onto the iPad, and then connect it to a TV with the digital HDMI adapter appealed to me.

When I first got home to set it up, the first thing I opened was the smart cover I’d bought. The first thing that struck me about it was how exceptionally easy it was to use – something that applies to a lot of Apples design philosophy it would seem. When something works so well you almost forget it’s there and don’t think about using it, the designer is onto a winner. Connecting to my PC wasn’t an issue either, I had a slight panic when on first connect I couldn’t access the settings, but this was related to not having purchased a 3G sim yet. When I plugged it in again, it worked fine (something my iPod touch hadn’t been doing recently – although I think that’s a last.fm scrobbler issue. Anyway I digress…). The Wi-Fi was easy to set up. I’ve had problems with Wi-Fi in my house before to the point I think the walls are lead-lined. I’ve bought a new router which seems to have solved the problem, and the iPads connectivity with it hasn’t been an issue for me at all yet. It does sometimes drop, but I don’t think I’ve owned anything which doesn’t have that problem for me sometime. Given the amount of use the iPad has had since I’ve bought it, it’s had a very high connection uptime.

So, I moved onto the meat of the iPad – the App Store. I’ve found the App Store to be easy to use, quick, and functional. It distinguishes between iPad and iPhone apps well, which is good because to be frank, iPhone apps feel awful on it given the screen real estate available. The featured items and the top 10 charts are actually useful as well, and don’t seem to be filled with rubbish. Especially on a launch weekend, you can guarantee the popular apps are going to be filled with ones people know are going to be useful. I found the App Store to be pain free.

At this point I started thinking about the gestures and realised that the main thing was, that until then I hadn’t even thought about it. They really are that intuitive. There are no delays (either in detecting touches or in the OS itself) – a problem my (non-iOS) phone is plagued with. I have now enabled multi-touch gestures as well, which has made the experience even smoother. My one gripe at this point would be that while the ones you use all the time are obvious, there are some useful ones which I’ve discovered by accident, and slightly better documentation on this front would be helpful.

The twitter app is very similar to the website, and so far as I can tell, isn’t plagued by the “dickbar” – as the trend bar on the iPhone twitter app has been christened. It’s made reading articles people link very easy, and the functionality is spot on. A lot of the time I “wasted” catching up on tweets has been removed, as it’s now an easier experience. I’ve already started using email more, and I have a separate account now set up on my iPad which I’m hoping not to fill with spam and use solely for personal use. It’s easy to use and cuts out a lot of the clutter and extra features I’m used to in Outlook. Certain newspaper apps seem better than others, and I have to say The (UK) Times app is absolutely superb. It’s made me want to read the extra sections of a broadsheet paper I’d always ignore, just because it’s that pain free. Not every newspaper app is quite so good though, both the metro and the Independent’s iPad app, I, fall short, and are not quite so pleasant. The Times have reported a massive increase in digital subscribers in the past 6 months and I can see why. They’re losing a massive amount of money on it – a month’s digital subscription to every edition barely costs more than just buying 4 print editions of the Sunday Times only – so I’m sure this is going to be altered slightly, but in my mind it’s worth it. Just to point out I didn’t read The Times before now, but this has certainly made it worth it.

I had a couple of movies I’d bought with iTunes, and a few recent TV shows for testing and the HDMI adapter works better than I’d thought. I’d expected a lot of pixelation, but unless you’re sat within a few feet of the TV you wouldn’t notice. A 200mb 40-minute TV show, an iTunes-downloaded film, and iPlayer are all very watchable on a 32” Sony TV, and the potential here I think is yet to be realised. I think for people who have to do a lot of presentations, an iPad is going to become invaluable.

I’ve also found myself using the iPad for things I hadn’t anticipated. Games are better than I’d expected. I play several games on my PC and thought that I’d find the iPad a bit…boring. But I sat for a good 2 hours plus, playing a flick football game which cost me 59p. It’s so simple, but so utterly addictive. I haven’t even moved into Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies territory yet, and I think it might be best that I don’t or I will get addicted. eBooks are also very easy, and a lot of the PDFs I’d find myself unable to read on a computer screen are now pleasant enough on the iPad. It’s an absolute dream for web browsing – iOS-rendered text combined with native Safari look great. I’m now finding myself doing the majority of the web trawling I’d have done on my PC before on my iPad. It’s also handy for food and recipes, something I really didn’t see coming and something my mum is actually finding interesting. Just getting my mum interested in anything vaguely gadget-y on its own is an achievement! I’ve also got Skype running – although I’m somewhat disappointed they only have an iPhone app and not a specific iPad one. I’ve also found the Tesco groceries app could come in quite handy. It has a built in barcode scanner, so if I run out of say, a packet of biscuits and need to have some more in, before I throw it away I can scan the barcode on the app using the iPhone camera, and it will auto save it to the basket. Even if I don’t buy it from Tesco, I can now see a list of items I need to remind myself to buy. It has a user-input text list as well, so for anything that Tesco don’t stock, you can still make a note. I don’t think I’ll ever actually buy any of the items I want from Tesco, but they’ve provided me with a free app that lets me know what I need to buy. There’s also other barcode scanner apps which will connect to Google shopping and let you know what price you can buy something for online, which I’m sure will come in handy.

There’s other apps I’ve seen which I’ll need to invest time in that I’m sure will be good. 1Password is a password manager which will track all your passwords for you, and can sync with a PC. I’ll be able to keep track of the many, many accounts I have for various things, and use different, more complex passwords for each one. It will almost definitely make my life easier, and at the same time increase the security of my online accounts. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Having been asked to write this, I made notes of things to include. At this point I started thinking more of the benefits I’ve got out of my iPad, and decided that while there’s not much it can do I couldn’t do with products I already own – don’t get me wrong, there certainly ARE things it does which I couldn’t do before –  what it does that I’ve been doing anyway, it enhances. Reading a newspaper is better, twitter is easier, email has become fun.

A Weekend of Fun With My iPad

Saturday - England were playing in the Cricket World Cup. I found myself watching it on TV, while having the BBC live text feed and some stats open on my iPad, and I was doing all this from the comfort of my bed rather than being tethered to my computer desk.

Sunday - I’d bought the F1 paid app (they also have a free one, not to be confused) for £20. I wasn’t really sure what it did, it was very impulsive. Bearing in mind Sunday morning the clocks had gone forward, and the race was in Australia so I was up at what was effectively 5am on a Sunday morning to my body clock. I was watching the F1 on one PC screen, talking to a few other hard-core fans who were awake on another screen, and my iPad had the F1 app up. The app has a driver tracker, showing you from the telemetry where the cars are on track at any time and also includes a timing screen. I can’t explain this to non-F1 fans without a separate blog, but basically, I spotted things that otherwise I would have missed. Things the commentators either didn’t pick up or didn’t have time to relay. I definitely felt it enhanced my experience, and I noticed things I wouldn’t have done without the iPad.

Monday I was watching an episode of a TV show I’d had to download as I’d missed it. Usually I’d be watching this in a small window on a computer monitor. This generally leads to me browsing websites or generally being distracted while watching. I was about to just plug my iPad into my TV and watch it from the comfort of my bedroom. I had no distractions and was able to enjoy it as visual entertainment. It was great.

Cons of my iPad

At this point, I realise I’ve not really pointed out any “cons” of the iPad. I don’t want to ignore these things and feel they should be mentioned. The inability for it to print without one of 11 super-expensive printers that can associate with it is very annoying. I’ve not found any apps that will work with my printer yet, and I have to mail to my desktop anything I want printing. The mailing itself is easy, but it’s an inconvenience. Despite my motherboard having USB3.0 ports which advertise themselves as being able to charge even when your computer is turned off, apparently none of my computers USB ports are providing enough power to charge my iPad, and I’m having to charge it off the mains. This isn’t really an issue as the battery life has been impressive, but when I’m using my iPad while away from home, I can see it being slightly annoying. For all the good things the smart cover does, it can’t be used in a portrait orientation. I’m probably going to get a dock at some point, but it would be nice not to have to. And finally, the size of iPhone apps on the screen, how it looks and how they scale is a bit pathetic. I’m not sure what Apple could do about this really, as developers are developing for the size of the iPhone screen, but it certainly gives a little to the argument for web programming over native programming.

All in all, I have to say that I feel the iPad is doing a job for me and doing it well. It is enhancing things I did before, and has stopped me being chained to a desk to do anything web related. I feel more free using it. I’d like to finish with a quick 30 seconds of experimenting I spent in a free app I’d never used before:



We have some customers who still opt to use the larger email marketing systems as their preferred system due to the fact Mailman does not allow the use of bought in lists. We work with customers of this nature by creating the HTML templates for them to import into their current email marketing system as they find our templates to be personal and represent the brand of the company much better than generic templates offered by the larger email marketing systems.

All in all a very successful launch for PJ Web’s email marketing system ‘Mailman’ and we expect continued growth in this service into 2011. If you would like to enquire about email marketing or would like a branded HTML template created around your business brand then please call 0161 799 8555 and speak to either Sarah or Chris.

We found the ideal place for a group of us to stay in Stow on the Wold at the Old Forge Barn, http://www.bookcottages.com/cottages/100-NT8-old-forge-barn.htm – it was just fabulous. It might be a tad cool in the really cold winter months as the windows are a bit rattly but in November the temperature wasn’t too bad (can anyone remember that time?).  As summer accommodation it would be lovely and the owner allows you to take dogs.  It’s a unique place, unusual, quirky and just great for a crowd (sleeps up to 8 people) – good value too.

What’s New on the Google Adwords Certification Program?

Well the first major change to passing the Google Adwords Certification program is it now requires a candidate to successfully pass two exams rather than the old style of one exam. In addition to taking an extra exam, Google have also increased the pass score for the Fundamentals exam percentage from 75% to 85%.  Whilst seemingly a rather large increase, this certainly gives passing the exam that extra bit of credibility and shows potential customers that indeed you do know your Google Adwords.

After you have successfully passed the Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam you are then ready to tackle any one of three more advanced exams which Google branch into the following :-

• Search Advertising Advanced Exam – Score of 80% or higher required
• Reporting and Analysis Exam – Score of 75% or higher required
• Display Exam – Score of 70% or higher required.

The three advanced exams are defiantly a considerable step up in difficulty compared to the fundamental exam and good preparation is certainly required if you want to stand any chance of achieving the required passing percentage and thus passing the new Google Adwords Certification program.

Chris’s Top 5 Tips to Passing the Google Adwords Exam

Unfortunately, there is no magic way of passing new Adwords Certification program, hard work, patience and dedication are required but the reward at the end is most certainly worth it.

Top 5 Tips to passing the Google Adwords Exam– Revise!

Google Adwords Learning Centre is your bread and butter when it comes to passing both the Google Adwords exams. It contains ALL the information that you need know and to be fair Google have done a great job with organising the content. You can break each section of the Learning Centre down and learn in a modular sort of fashion. Simply put, if you know the Google Adwords Learning Centre well, you can pass both the exams, no sweat.

There is a downside to the Google Adwords learning centre material in that after around half an hour or so of reading it can quickly become extremely tedious and information is quickly forgotten meaning regular breaks are essential.

Top 5 Tips to passing the Google Adwords Exam – Get Hands On!

Have a Google Adwords Account. Simply essential. Both exams no matter which you choose WILL include many questions on the locations of certain features of the system, along with questions about what information can you access from certain tabs etc. You HAVE to have a good understanding of the structure of the system, and rather than reading up in the Google Adwords learning centre why not learn this by actually doing it?

Top 5 Tips to passing the Google Adwords Exam – Get Google’s Opinion!

Keep up to date with the latest opinions, news and guides in the Google Adwords world. Google have an official Adwords blog that is most certainly worth reading, whether your thinking of sitting the exam or not. It has opinions and information provided by Google who of course write the Google Adwords Exams so no harm can be done by using this resource.

Top 5 Tips to passing the Google Adwords Exam – Attention to Detail!

Read the questions thoroughly. Even with excellent preparation before each exam you can easily be caught out by questions that more than one answer would be suitable to use. Rather than pick the first answer you feel is the correct answer read all the options, there is a good chance that a better option exists. A good way to handle this issue is to simply mark the questions you feel have more than one answer and go back and answer them at the end. Don’t worry about the time limits, you will have enough time.

Top 5 Tips to passing the Google Adwords Exam – Confident not Cocky!

Google have ramped up the pass marks, and introduced an additional more advanced exam. By all means if your prepared be confident and rightly so, however please do not be cocky. Google’s new Adwords Certification Program is a hell of a lot more difficult than the old program and the advanced exams are not to be taken lightly and if you are not prepared enough will definitely catch you out. Google have raised the bar, which can only be good for advertising professionals and really shows that people who are certified know what they are talking about which is why the right amount of time and preparation is required to become a Google Adwords certified.

There’s a large database of biographies of notable Salford people buried at Weaste and  also a facility to upload your own ancestors’ details to the site.  If you have an ancestor that died in the Great War and is buried at Weaste, there’s a separate database that you can search.  The resources section is ideal for those interested in local history and 2011 events are being posted regularly – for more information visit www.weasteheritagetrail.co.uk.  We were delighted to have been involved in the web development for Weaste Cemetery – a truly enjoyable and unusual project for us to carry out.

Setting up email on the iPhone

PJ Web offer a variety of hosting packages for both web and email, covering an array of solutions.

This Blog will help in assisting users who are attempting to set  email up on the iPhone in either of the following scenarios:

• Setting up POP email on their iPhone
• Setting up their Google based email as a Push account

How to set email up on the iPhone – setting up POP email

1) First things first, ensure that you have all the details you will need in order to set up the email account on the iPhone. These will be:

• Email Address
• Account username
• Account password
• Incoming mail server
• Outgoing mail server

For this example, we shall use the test@pjweb.co.uk email account as a reference. This account has been set up on Google and so will use Google’s mail servers. The information for this account is as follows:

• Email Address: test@pjweb.co.uk
• Account username: test@pjweb.co.uk
• Account password: *********
• Incoming mail server: pop.gmail.com
• Outgoing mail server: smtp.gmail.com

2) Now that we have the information, we can begin setting up email on the iPhone. To begin setting up the account go to the Home screen and navigate your way through the following application/menu items: Settings >> Mail, Contacts, Calendars >> Add Account… >> Other

How to set email up on the iPhone - Navigating to the Email Menu

You should now have the option to Add Mail Account. Click on this to start configuring the email account.

3) You should be presented with a screen to enter the following information:

• Name

This is the name of the person the account belongs to and will appear on their outgoing emails.

• Address

This is the email address of the account you are setting up

• Password

The password of the email account you are setting up

• Description

This description is mostly for the user’s reference. Labels such as “Work Email” etc will suffice depending on the main use of this account.

Proceed to fill out this information and click Return on the last box or Next in the top right corner of the window. This will trigger the iPhone to look up the account information if it can be obtained. Once look up has completed, the iPhone will return the additional options to fill out the mail server information.

How to set email up on the iPhone - Email Account Menu

4) Now that we have the basic information in the form, please ensure that the top selector is set to POP unless you are certain that the mail server supports IMAP. Scroll down until you reach Incoming Mail Server and fill in the following information:

• Host Name

This is the incoming mail server address. For this example it would be pop.gmail.com

• User Name

The username for the account is usually the email address unless stated otherwise

• Password

This should be prefilled for you based on the password you entered on the previous screen

5) After filling in this information proceed on to the Outgoing Mail Server settings and begin to fill in the form elements here:

• Host Name

This is the outgoing mail server address. For this example it would be smtp.gmail.com

• User Name

The username for the account is usually the email address unless stated otherwise

• Password

This should be password for the account.

Once you have filled out this information, press the Save button on the top right of the screen. This will trigger the account to verify the settings. If all is well, you should be taken back to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars… screen with your new account listed under the Accounts subheading.

How to set email up on the iPhone - Mail Contacts Calander Menu

6) Congratulations! You should now have successfully set up email on the iPhone. You can now send and receive POP email from the account.

How to set up email on the iPhone – Google based push account

PJ Web is increasingly catering for customers wanting to move their email to Google Business Apps. This provides better spam protection as well as advanced features and web interface. If a customer ever requests how to set up email on their iPhone and their email is hosted on Google Business Apps, then this section of the guide is for them.

Note: As a prerequisite, you must have the Google Business App account set up for Mobile Sync. To do this, you will need to log in as the administrator for the Google Business App account (in this example it would be google@pjweb.co.uk via https://www.google.com/a/pjweb.co.uk/). Once logged in, you should be on the Dashboard. There should be an option for Mobile on this page. Click on this link and on the following page select Enable Google Sync and save the update.

1) The first thing when setting up this account is to ensure that you have all the details you will need in order to set up the account on a mobile device. These will be:

• Email Address
• Account username
• Account password

For this example, we shall use the test@pjweb.co.uk email account as a reference.

• Email Address: test@pjweb.co.uk
• Account username: test@pjweb.co.uk
• Account password: *********

2) Now that we have the information, we can begin setting up the email account on the iPhone. To begin setting up the account go to the Home screen and navigate your way through the following application/menu items: Settings >> Mail, Contacts, Calendars >> Add Account… >> Microsoft Exchange

How to set email up on the iPhone - Email Account Menu

3) You should now have a screen with the following form fields:

• Email

The email address of the account you are setting up

• Domain

Leave this blank

• Username

The username or email address of the account (usually the email address by default)

• Password

The email account password

• Description

A description for the user’s reference

For this example we shall enter the following information on this screen:

• Email: test@pjweb.co.uk
• Domain: <leave this blank>
• Username: test@pjweb.co.uk
• Password: *********
• Description: Work

Once you have filled in this information, press either Next or Return. This will trigger the iPhone to attempt to verify the information you have entered.

At this point you may receive a warning regarding verifying the server. If this pop-up appears, press Continue to dismiss it and proceed.

How to set email up on the iPhone - Exchange Menu

4) Once verification has finished, the screen should be returned more or less unchanged. You should notice that a new box titled Server has been inserted between Email and Domain. For Google, the value you need to enter for this box is m.google.com.

5) You should now be able to send and receive email from you new account. If you cannot connect to your new account please make sure that Google Sync for the Business App account is enabled (this may take a couple of minutes to activate.)

The good news is now you can send and receive emails on your iPhone, the bad news…Work can contact you out off the office and you do not really have an excuse to ignore them. Maybe we can help you out with that on another blog post in the future but we cant promise!