Search Office Space

LinkedIn, the world's most successful social network for professionals has recently launched a highly anticipated new iPad App in an attempt to reach an even wider audience. 

The iPad App has been completely redesigned, as have the existing iPhone and Android Apps. The design does not resemble the LinkedIn website but rather a clean and minimalist interface with just three options: updates, inbox and profile. 

One of the main features of the iPad App is somewhat voyeuristic - but highly interesting and important to users... You can now see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile. This is great news for users, especially those who often use LinkedIn as a tool to find employment. 

However, the feature that really stands out is the 'updates' section which resembles a socially enhanced flip-board where you can view stories your 'connections' have shared, along with snippets of news relating to your profile changes and news. Everything is beautifully laid out and easy to use. 

And there's more! The iPad App also finds details of the day ahead from your personal Google Calendar or Exchange Calendar, allowing you to be reminded or updated of what's to come in the future - an excellent piece of design and technology for busy users working away from their office space! 

Lastly, the iPad App features are not available when using the LinkedIn.com website via your computer, so that's one reason to try it out and see what you think!

Mario Saunder, Social Media Manager at LinkedIn told press, "This was a chance to go back to the drawing board...to design it for how people user the iPad: morning and night infotainment". 

So, the wait is over, but was it all worth it? What do you think?

Imagine a world without the London Underground: no bustling Liverpool Street Station, no sneak peak at the street performers just outside Covent Garden Station and no easy access to many of London’s best kept secrets.

Who knew that Henry Beck’s original London Underground Map would go on to be what it is today – an underground web of tunnels and trains rushing passengers to their destinations at extraordinary speed. It begs the question as to how the Underground will be a few centuries from now; what technology will be around then to make this current map unrecognisable?

The Londonist has made a brave attempt to create a map which portrays extra information and further dimensions: in 3D. This has been done using the Google Sketchup tool and presents a visual idea of how all the stations weave themselves together to create what we know as the London Underground.

Consistent geometries have been used to create this tunnel-tangle, and coloured rectangles have been used to demonstrate how different lines cross at various stations. The Northern Line’s journey, for example, is illustrated through these means as it passes through many stations such as King’s Cross and Euston.

The Londonist states that its intention was not to produce a map that is a user-friendly navigational aid, but to create something cool for us to talk about. Who knows, maybe one day our technological dependency on devices such as this 3D map will be such that Henry Beck’s simple tube design will be forever changed.

Here are some pictures of the 3D map, courtesy of The Londonist:

(download)

Click here to download:

an-ordinary-london-tube-map-transformed-into-3d-BFbHoxwyHBwCjsFqogdo.zip (1.62 MB)

The London 2012 Olympic Torch will be making its way across the UK, beginning its journey in Land’s End on Saturday 19^th May 2012 and finishing at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford on Friday 27^th July 2012. The relay will take 70 days and involve 8,000 torchbearers from all walks of life, who have come together to celebrate this pivotal event.

Although the torch will be carried around all four corners of the British Isles and pass through over 1,000 different communities, one of the major locations is of course the host city – London.

So, for those of you who want to get involved and cheer on the torchbearers, or for those of you who want to avoid the crowds and stay out of the way – here is the definitive guide to the 2012 Olympic Torch Route, London.

• The Olympic Torch will reach Greenwich on Saturday 21^st July and travel through Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney then Waltham Forrest where an evening celebration will be held.
• On Sunday 22^nd July, the Torch reaches Redbridge then travels to Barking & Dagenham, Havering and ending in Bexley for another round of festivities.
• Monday 23^rd July sees the Olympic Torch make its way through Lewisham, Bromley, Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth in South West London.
• The route for Tuesday 24^th July starts in Kingston and proceeds onwards to Richmond, Hounslow, Hillingdon then Ealing for the evening shindig.
• On Wednesday 25^th July, the Torch makes its way through Harrow, Brent, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey (more evening celebrations) in North London.
• Thursday 26^th July travels from North London through to the West End, starting in Camden, then on to Islington, the City, Southwark, Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, then Westminster which will be an ideal spot for the evening celebrations held along the North Bank of the River Thames.
• Lastly, Friday 27^th July sees the Olympic Torch reach its final destination – The Olympic Stadium in Stratford as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. One lucky torchbearer will then be given the task of lighting the Olympic Cauldron with the torch flame. The flames will stay alight until the closing ceremony on August 12^th 2012.

If you can’t make it to any of these London locations for the Olympic Games Torch Relay, you may get the chance to catch the London 2012 Paralympic Torch Relay which takes place between the 24^th and 29^th August. The Paralympic Torch Relay involves the lighting of four separate flames in London, Greater Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff where celebrations and festivals will be held. The torchbearers will then unite at Stoke Mandeville before a 24-hour torch relay to the Olympic Stadium.

Whether you’re backing the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games or not, this will be a time of celebration, and one which will go down in history, so you might as well make the most of it!

This advertising stunt carried out by world renowned advertising and design agency Saatchi & Saatchi depicts many office workers’ dream – to escape their stressful working environments and head off into the sunset on a motorised desk!

Back in January, commuters and passers-by in Canary Wharf were amazed to see this dream become a reality as one ‘banker’ escaped their office space and headed straight for Soho. The stunt was to promote Saatchi & Saatchi’s graduate recruitment scheme which runs every year and for six weeks during the summer months. Ten lucky graduates are picked by the agency and set a series of tasks; the cream of the crop will then be offered a full time placement with Saatchi & Saatchi themselves.

Aboard the motorized desk, the ‘bored office workers’ handed out leaflets that read “Escape from your boring office – Now recruiting talented grads and anyone else who fancies a more creative job”. Which I can imagine is quite a lot of workers out there!

Unfortunately, the closing date for the recruitment scheme has just closed, but fear not, as there will be another coming in 2013.

For those of you who can’t wait that long, there is another option: Become your own boss!

Setting up a new company can be a daunting thought and a hard task, but this could be escape you need. To ensure you’re not trapped in a boring office space, have you considered renting shared office space?

Shared office space allows a more flexible form of working. Your new start-up company can share a working environment with like-minded professionals who you can bounce ideas off and collaborate with. Search Office Space has a wide range of shared office space for rent in London, UK cities and across the globe, so wherever you want to start afresh, we can help.

Another top tip inspired by Saatchi & Saatchi’s campaign is to create a publicity stunt that promotes your new business. One of the best day’s to do this is of course April 1^st, which is less than a month away so you better get planning now!

By launching a publicity or advertising stunt on April fool’s day mean’s that you can be as controversial as you wish – as controversy creates interest, especially if you are a media or creative company yourself. Obvious pointers are to promote yourself in way that emphasis your company’s credentials, but having your tongue firmly placed within your cheek can also work wonders!

Following on from Saatchi & Saatchi’s antics, here are four more well-known publicity stunts to inspire you:

Today, two of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsors, Samsung and Visa, announced a mobile phone application that enables contactless payment at the Point of Sale. 

The App is set to debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, from February 27th to March 1st. This collaboration of sponsors marks the first step in bringing mobile contactless payments to London - and what better time to promote this than the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic games!?

The application is based around Visa's PayWave system and Samsung's Near Field Communication (NFC) technology which allows customers to pay for a product simply by holding their phone in front of a contactless reader at the point of purchase in and around Olympic venues this summer. The app also allows customers to keep a track of their transaction history and balance.  

Many people are somewhat sceptical over the security and reliability of the App. However, Visa has assured the public that the multi-layered security platform is of the same standard that applies to Visa cards and online payments. 

At a press conference, Sandra Alzetta, Head of Innovation at Visa Europe said, "London 2012 is a unique opportunity to show the future of payments coming to life and leave a lasting legacy post-2012. The new mobile payment application is central to this showcase. Samsung is extremely thrilled to work with Visa to launch mobile payment services for the London 2012 Olympic Games. We believe that this showcase will motivate people to experience and adopt easy and safe payment through mobile devices". 

Visa has been a sponsor of the Olympic Games for over 25 years, and the Paralympic Games for 10 years. During this time, Visa has implemented the entire payment system infrastructure throughout the Games' venues. Now, with over 3,000 contactless terminals within Olympic and Paralympic venues, Visa and Samsung are hoping that this will become the preferred method of payment, and the fastest! 

If you want to try out the PayWave NFC App for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, you will of course need to own a smart phone with fully functioning NFC technology. Luckily, most smart phones currently on the market include this technology and there will be more available nearer the launch. Just check your phone's specification to make sure!

Happy Contactless Buying! 

Many entrepreneurs find it a tricky step to move their business from the comfort of their own home to the more daunting prospect of an office. Richard Smith, Managing Director and founder of Search Office Space, did just this when he started the UK’s first serviced office broker 19 years ago. His top tips are as follows:

1) Research research research!

A company has to consider the most vital necessities when it comes to their office space in order that it caters for all business needs. Aspects such as budget, location, branding, staff and lease must all be taken into account in order to find the ideal office space, and it is always worth considering the option of a ‘virtual office’ as opposed to a physical one.

2) What does the rent include?

This is a vital stage of the research undertaken before renting office space, as no one likes to suddenly discover they are required to fork out a substantial amount of money to pay an unexpected bill. A business should ensure that they know what is included in the rental cost – serviced offices leases commonly include business rates, service charge, phone installation, IT and cleaning with no other hidden expenses.

3) How much space?

It is often hard to predict whether a company will expand or contract, and for this reason a company must ensure that they rent adequate space, preferably with the option to increase or decrease as the need arises. It is recommended to allow 100sq. ft per employee, and don’t forget to allow for any extra storage space if needed.

4) Extra facilities in the building?

Companies benefit from office space within a building which also houses meeting rooms and conference facilities. Potential tenants should research how easily accessible these amenities are, and whether it is important to have food and beverage facilities within the building too.

5) What are the neighbours like?

Check out the clientele within the building – no company wants to settle in only to find that the people behind the glass wall opposite them are actually their competitors! Often it is also worth noting the other companies in the building for networking purposes.

Facebook, with its ever changing format and increasing number of applications, always manages to cause some kind of controversy. Whether its users are not fans of a new layout, or just looking for something to grumble about, Facebook has always been a hot topic of conversation.

The new ‘Timeline’ feature, initially released in September 2011, was received with mixed reviews. Some liked it, some hated it, and some just wanted to have a moan. Whether the vast majority liked it or not, many users have taken the opportunity to play about with the settings and see what they can produce.

The new ‘cover photo’ feature has been tweaked by some users to create cool effects in order to customise and individualise their profiles. Check out some of their designs below:

(download)

Click here to download:

untitled-DzwzffmcaEaGtBbdaGyE.zip (1.06 MB)

Hidden away in one of the most traditional buildings in Victoria, south-west London, is one of the coolest office spaces you are likely to come across. 

Last month, Google unveiled its new engineering floor office space design, known as 'L4', which includes a games room, recording studio, free restaurant and unique coffee bar, along with comfortable sofa areas in place of meeting room tables, and corridors themed like the Starship Enterprise!

It seems the UK office has followed on from Google's San Francisco's office space design, which was the first in the world to include a slide rather than a staircase!

The London project team, led by Henrique Penha, one of the lead designers for Google's mobile phone and tablet software, Android, spent months designing the floor before revealing his plans to the Penson Group architects. 

Mr Penha told the Evening Standard, "Making it feel like it's not an office was part of the brief. The meeting rooms have sofas, making them more laid- back. Forcing people to sit differently can help them to think differently" - Which goes hand in hand with Google, one of the pioneering establishments of the 21st century. 

Additional design features of Google's L4 include 'white board walls' along the corridors, ideal for staff to jot down ideas on the go. And at the heart of L4 is the 'park' complete with deck chairs, and a rowing boat - you know - for those informal meetings that tend to happen on a lake. 

Some have dubbed Google's design over the top, a waste of money and an unproductive working environment, but to me, it sounds like it might be a case of the green-eyed monster rearing its ugly head - after all - wouldn't you want to work in an office space like this?! 

Nelson Mattos, Google's Vice President of Engineering told the Daily Mail,
"Contrary to accepted wisdom, fun offices don’t hurt. Our experience is that a comfortable, open and fun environment encourages creativity and openness. Open spaces make chance interactions more likely and chance interactions often lead to the greatest ideas. Many of our products came from unrelated teams finding out about each other’s work and physically meeting to discuss fresh approaches".

[Images from dailymail.com © Google]

Advances in technology have shaped the world we live in - most of the time - for the better. However, some of the activities we used to carry out have been killed by these technological advances and have resulted in lazy behaviour. 

An article in The Telegraph lists the top '50 things killed by technology', which apply to most of us out there. Take a look and see if you agree:

1. Ring the cinema to find out times

2. Going into the travel agents to research a holiday

3. Record things using VHS

4. Dial directory enquiries

5. Use public telephone boxes

6. Book tickets for events over the phone

7. Print photos

8. Put a classified ad in the shop window

9. Ring the speaking clock

10. Carry portable CD players

11. Write handwritten letters

12. Buy disposable cameras

13. Take plenty of change for pay phones

14. Make mix tapes

15. Pay bills at the post office 

16. Use an address book

17. Check a map before or during car journey18. Reverse charges in payphones

19. Go into the bank or building society to conduct your business

20. Buy TV listings

21. Own an encyclopaedia

22. Queue to get car tax in Post Office

23. Develop and send off for photographs

24. Read a hard copy of the Yellow Pages

26. Remember phone numbers/ Have a phone book

27. Watch VHS videos

28. Have pen friends

29. Use a telephone directory

30. Use pagers

31. Fax things

32. Buy CD's/ Have a CD collection 

 33. Pay by cheque

34. Make photo albums

35. Watch programmes at the time they are shown

36. Dial 1471 when you get home

37. Warm milk or other hot drinks on stove

38. Try on lots of pairs of shoes on high street

39. Hand wash clothes

41. Send love letters42. Hand-write essays / school work

43. Buy flowers from a florist

44. Work out how to spell something yourself

45. Keep a personal diary

46. Send post cards

47. Buy newspapers

48. Hang washing out in winter

49. Keep printed bills or bank statements

50. Visit car boot sales

In many ways, I think this is rather sad, as pastimes like ringing up the cinema to talk to that automated voice which tries to guess what you're saying was all part of the fun! No?  

And as for faxing, dictionaries and encyclopaedias - I’m pretty sure my office still has these!

So my plea is for everyone to remember the good old days - go try on shoes, buy newspapers and write love letters! I'm sure you won’t regret it. 

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is possibly the most anticipated android smartphone of the year, after the Google-branded Nexus name became the Holy Grail of smartphones, converting many iPhone fans into Nexus believers. 

The first Google android smartphone - The Nexus One - was revealed in January 2010 and manufactured by HTC. Since then, the follow ups have both been manufactured by Samsung, with the Nexus S, and now, the Galaxy Nexus. 

With stiff competition from Apple and the iPhone generation, Nexus may not be as widely used, but that may soon change, after the highly anticipated release of the smartphone on December 2nd 2011, came just in time for the Christmas rush. 

The new Android 4.0 operating system, known as 'Ice Cream Sandwich', has been designed to integrate with Tablets and Smartphones, whereas the previous Nexus system, 'Honeycomb', did not. Other features of the Galaxy Nexus include a larger screen, which is 4.65inches, with 720 x 1280 pixels and 'Super Amoled HD', which offers crystal clear colour contrast and sharper images. 

The design of the phone is also highly desirable, weighing in slightly heavier than the Nexus S, at a respectable 135g, with 135.5 x 67.9 x 8.9mm dimensions, making it more pleasant to hold for long periods. The curved glass screen is also ergonomically friendly when pressed against your ear, and the textured battery cover is certainly less slippery than the previous Nexus S. 

In terms of new features, the Galaxy Nexus is something to get excited about, whether you're an Android geek, or simply a technology fan. We have all heard of face-time, but what about face-unlock?! This new features allows you to unlock your phone thanks to the face recognition system - very futuristic, and handy if you forget your pin number! 

The new Android Beam feature allows you to share websites, contacts, apps, etc... simply by touching two compatible phones together - similar to the iPhone 'bump' app, but built in to the features.

One of my favourite features of the new Galaxy Nexus is the camera, which has the capability to take photo after photo, without having to wait for the phone to save and re-open the camera feature. You can also take panoramic shots in one smooth motion. This type of phone makes the digital camera seem obsolete.

In addition to these new features, the Galaxy Nexus also has complete integration of Google+ which allows users to upload and share photos in seconds. 

One of the reasons why the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is up there on the list of Smartphone of the Year nominees is because 'The Ice Cream Sandwich' operating system is set to shape the course of 2012. The multi-tasking features allow you to have multiple websites and apps open, then simply swiped away to close may mean we no longer need laptops for business. 

The only negative of this smartphone is the size. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus makes iPhones look small, and that’s no easy task. Ladies, if you want to fit this phone into your clutch bag, think again! But on the plus side, the large screen is ideal for watching videos.