Pete's Eats

Dave Stone was kind enough to lend me his Nexus One for a while (thanks Dave!) and I used it for about a week constantly marvelling about how much better it was over my iPhone 3GS. Let me clarify ‘better’ before continuing: I can install what I want; I can customise it pretty much any way I want; the music store (Amazon MP3) doesn’t lock your music to your device(s); the system level integration between social media and my phone (more on that later); the camera; the marketplace and it’s complete lack of ‘big brother-ness’; the battery life; I could go on…

All of that said however, after a week I began to move out of the honeymoon phase and I began to realise the main difference for me. My iPhone was a device that ran apps (one of which was a phone) while my Android was a phone that ran apps.

I began to wonder if I really wanted to move back to a ‘phone’ and whether I was missing my iPhone though, so I snaffled Nete’s iPhone for a quick play and it actually made me shudder. The iPhone was so slow compared to the Nexus, but more than that, the lack of integration between apps (or more between data sources) felt awful too. This raised some awkward questions for me: 1) I clearly did not want to move back to my iPhone but 2) I was increasingly unconvinced about the whole ‘phone over unphone(?)’ thing too. What to do?

Then, I discovered Slide Screen by Larva Labs by accident and it all came together. Everything I use a phone/device for integrated at every level from ‘at a glance’ to detailed view presented in a visually appealing and useful way:

Slide Screen Dashboard View

Twitter, Facebook, news (via my Google Reader account), calendar, phone, sms, email, time, weather, wifi signal, mobile signal and date all in one ‘at a glance’ screen. Designing for the small screen can be really hard but they’ve nailed it spot on…

After installing Slide Screen, the Nexus One is much less a phone with apps and much more of a social hub bringing together all of my main social data sources into one place.

I can honestly say I have never used a phone so much since installing this last week. I’ve also never used my social media accounts so much either – so expect lots more Facebook friend requests and Twitter activity too!

Love it…

One of the disappointing things about Android for me so far, is the lack of integration between the platform and Linux generally (I use Ubuntu Karmic Koala at the moment).

For instance, on Mac and PC you can use doubleTwist to sync your music between your phone and desktop (after you’ve ripped the drm out of stuff you’ve already paid for of course), but the music player that I use in Ubuntu is Songbird and it’s not such an easy process to get them talking. Nevertheless, you can with a bit of hacking…

Check out this guide to the process: Syncing your G1/Android Device With Songbird for the necessary steps.

Given my preoccupation with coffee and associated stuff, amongst others I’ve been reading Starbucks Gossip and StarbucksMelody for a while now. I love reading their reviews of various Starbucks stores (particularly in the Seattle area where I’ve also visited a fair few of them) and I always chuckle (sourly) at the experiences they describe and specifically how they compare to the UK. It’s probably fair to say that generally the UK Starbucks ‘experience’ is a very poor relation to that of the US in every single way, but read on for an example of just how poor it can be…

When we were out the other morning in Brighton town centre, we decided to drop into Starbucks and grab a coffee. We were in the main shopping area of Brighton so headed for their flagship store on Western Road on the basis that they’d have plenty of seating available. The good news is that they did have plenty of space, the bad news was pretty much everything else sadly.

There was no-one ahead of me in the queue but even so, when I got to the till the female member of staff was way too busy working on some kind of tick list paperwork to acknowledge me until the bottom of the list had been reached. Once I ordered our drinks (two tall drip coffees) and received them we headed upstairs to find some seats. The state of the place was incredible – if ripped seats, stained graffiti’d tables, walls with chunks missing and coverings torn and ripped was the look they were going for then they’ve achieved it with superb aplomb – and despite the high availability of so-called ‘comfy seats’ we decided that our clothes and skin would thank us for instead choosing the more traditional wooden chairs. Here’s a couple of shots of the place:

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Wall Condition

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - wall coverings

I know that this particular Starbucks has been like this for a number of years now and I have to be honest and say that whilst I’ve noticed it in the past I’ve not really taken a huge amount of notice of the state of the place before. It shows a general neglect that’s fairly common to a lot of UK high street businesses and whilst it isn’t what you’d expect of a US based company who claims to hold customer experience in such high regard, it’s still not enough to make you want to complain given that we’re in the UK.

What’s made me write this then? What was the tipping point? Well, I had to use the bathroom before leaving the store and I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Mould in the Bathroom

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Mould and Decay in the Bathroom

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Mould in the Bathroom

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Dirt in the Bathroom

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Dirt and Mould in the Bathroom

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Mould in the Bathroom

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Damp and Mould in the Bathroom

Starbucks; Western Road, Brighton - Mould Around the Washbasin in the Bathroom

The pictures make for grim viewing but as they were taken with my mobile they don’t fully convey the horror… I should also note here that the gents is a single person room with two areas inside (one for the toilet and one for the washbasin) hence being able to take the photographs…

It’s clear that the bathroom has not been cleaned in a very long time. There is mould literally everywhere; there are patches of damp that are rotten to the core never having been treated; the floor is filthy and covered in detritus; the toilet itself… well, I’m feeling sick again just recalling the state of it… There was no soap but of course that’s only of concern if you’re brave enough to want to touch the taps and sink itself. Overall, disgusting and a very serious health hazard.

If Starbucks UK ever have the embarrassing occasion to read this and look at the photographs then I would urge you to close this place down immediately and begin a deep clean if not a full refurbishment. It genuinely still makes me physically sick to think about my visit.

Oh, and fwiw, the coffee tasted like it had been sitting for quite some time before it reached our cups too. Yuk.

Update: Tim McCoy from Starbucks in the UK emailed me the other day following this post. He indicated that some renovation work on the Brighton branch had already been in the pipeline. Hopefully, that will happen soon…