I’m no barista, but these (both antipodean run) coffee stops make for a truly fine place to drink and read. Oh, and Tim Westwood drinks in Flat White. Make of that what you will.

1. Fernandez and Wells, 73 Beak St, W1F 9SR (Google Map)

2. Flat White, 17 Berwick Street, W1F 0PT (Google Map)

Today I discovered APML(new window) and it’s changed everything.

Two years ago, I was part of the group that won Reboot, the BBC homepage redesign competition. Our principle feature was a filter with three settings, You, BBC and everyone else.

When set to ‘Everyone Else’ all content was filtered to display content preferred by the user community. Set to ‘You’ it displayed content that matched your preferred content (pulling from Last.fm/Delicious/Amazon/Sky + viewing etc). Set to ‘BBC’ it filtered content based on what the BBC prefered you to view.

At the time I had no idea how that would ever be implemented, it seemed a long way off but the concept was valid. If only we had some way to pull all that your personal data together and distribute to other services.

Then today I watched the DataPortability video and discovered APML.

Designed correctly (with privacy clearly the big issue) APML will become the enabler for features like the BBC slider. Login with you Open ID, agree to share your data, then the site pulls what it wants from your profile, contextualizing content, navigation, language, advertising, in principle providing completely personalised experience for every user. That’s a big, big step.

But first, a little context.

I’m unhappy. A software upgrade (I think) broke my wifi, which means now I have to travel back in time and PLUG A NETWORK CABLE IN. And the Apple forums didn’t turn up anything useful. I’m now thinking I have to visit the genius bar but really don’t want to spend my weekend queueing in Regent St. But then I’m told you can book in advance and suddenly I’m feeling a little better about it.

After a couple of trips round the wizard I got a slot, but it wasn’t easy. Here’s my thoughts.

Explain what a member is. I know if you are a member you login with a number so it’s nothng to do with my Apple profile. I also get the impression if I was a member then I’d be treated differently. I feel a little left out.

Use my Apple profile. You need my details to link the booking so you may as well use what you know already. You could even pull my history to see my purchases, ask me what I’m coming in to talk about, or prioritise me if you know i’m having real trouble. I feel like a stranger and you’ve known me for years.

If you’ve no appointments left, tell me when I can come back. While you’re at it also explain why you only book two days in advance, I understand you’re busy, just please don’t just show me the door.

Once I’m booked in, help me remember it, if you’d let me login you’d have known I have an iPhone and you could have sent me a friendly mail.

Support is important. The relationship is breaking down and it’s your opportunity to make things upto me. A little bit more and it’s near perfect*.

*Other than things never breaking

Chinese noodle basket being cut down to suit the chef’s grip.  Incidentally he waited until the steam softened the wood before he started shaving it.

Snapped at London’s finest chinese barbeque.

It started well, their iPhone (new window) site leading me right to the door. No queue on arrival, immidiately seated at communal benches (good for nosing neighbour food) and a one page menu which is always a good sign, sort of ‘we don’t much, but we do it well’.

“Here’s your meals…….there’s also some fresh chilli and a dish of lemon and ginger…..The chilli’s not hot so don’t be afraid and the lemon is reallly good with the houmous………Enjoy”

Didn’t expect the extras and the advice somehow made all the difference. Something about instructions with your food is reassuring, it tells you they’ve eaten the food and they enjoy it. To the business it’s almost free but it as a customer it’s priceless.