Colleen C. Barrett, businesswoman and former President of Southwest Airline said “Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.”

At Taptu, we’ve been working very hard on future features for our search engine, but we also love to play and have fun along the way. Our wonderful office manager recently orchestrated for a corner of the office to be carved into a cozy and relaxing chillout area. So we now have sofas with pink cushions and the highly coveted corner seat where I assure you I have not fallen asleep… (Well, no one has evidence, so I’ll stick to my story!) and more Lego than you can shake a Rubik cube at!

We’ve put up a few photos on Flickr of what the office looked like “in progress” as wiring was being laid, and when the bar was installed, and we’ve been known to build silly contraptions out of Lego, but we assure you we’re very grown up!

Oi! Who threw a screaming monkey at me!?

Every day, mobile surfers arrive to Taptu using dozens of different devices through dozens of different operators. Just like each one of us is a beautiful snowflake (or so says my mother, anyway), each of those combinations of device/firmware/operator comes with its quirks.

A common problem Taptu users flagged up is difficulty with streaming video on some Nokia devices, so we thought we’d share our best tip which should allow most users to be able to get streaming working via Real Player on their Symbian S60 v3 phones* like the N95, N76, E71, etc…

So here is a simple step-by-step on setting your phone AND Real Player to use the same Internet connection. We’ve put a step-by-step in screenshots on Flickr to make it easier too.

1. Open the main menu and select ‘Tools’
2. Select ‘Settings’
3. Select ‘Applications’
4. In Applications select ‘RealPlayer’
5. In RealPlayer select ‘Streaming’
6. Select ‘Network’ in Streaming settings
7. Select ‘Default access point’ (See screenshot)
8. Select the same option which you use to Browse the internet. When they are the same you should be able to stream.
9. Then start up your browser as you normally would and select the same option as the RealPlayer ‘Default access point’

For many users, this will fix to streaming problem! If this doesn’t resolve your video streaming problem, you may want to call your operator to find out if you need any different settings to enable streaming.

If you have more questions about Taptu, check out our FAQ for more answers to commonly asked questions.

[* For a more complete list of S60 devices and which version they are, Wikipedia has a nice list here]

As a rule, Taptu runs really well, but when we talk about actual running, the company falls a little short of the mark.

Taptu, like all the other companies in the Cambridge Science Park, took part in the annual Science Park fun run in aid of Children in Need. For those who don’t know, the fun run is a four person relay race around the Science Park, a full circuit of which is about 1.1 miles. So with 4 teams (and one Stephen), Taptu was in the running (!) for success. Team one was led by Conor  (Business development isn’t his only talent), team two was helmed by Cameron  (the editor of Taptu Loves…), team three was guided by Becky (Feedback whizz) and team four was captained by Lynsey (our very own Miss MoneyPenny, head of finance). Obviously, the aim of the game was not to win, but to raise as much money as possible. However, there was no escaping our natural competitiveness and, as a result, things got serious!

The warm up was led by Conor, Taptu’s answer to Mr Motivator – thankfully without the lycra. Once warmed up, we were all ready and raring to go, but there was just time to admire the fancy dress costumes on display, which did not disappoint.

In the end team one, true to form, finished first out of the Taptu teams, although Taptu missed out on the award for the fastest company, which, I hasten to add, is not a reflection of our search engine!

A special mention should also be made of Rosie B for individually raising the most money for charity: a whopping £85. In total, Taptu raised over £500 for Children in Need.

To see the team in all its glory, have a look at our Flickr photoset.

Fancy catching up with a few of the Taptu folks in person? A few of us will be attending Future of Mobile, organised by the folks at Carsonified, next Monday, November 17th at Kensington Town Hall in London.

They’ve also been mad enough to trust me with a mic, so I’ll be joining a few highly esteemed colleagues on a ‘6×6 UK Bloggers Perspectives’, speaking alongside Helen Keegan, Jemima Kiss, James Whatley, Andrew Grill and Ewan Macleod.

For more on the speakers and topics covered at Future of Mobile, visit the site and see for yourself. It isn’t too late to get a ticket!

Following Mobile 2.0 in San Francisco last week, a few people have asked us to share the slides from our CTO Stef’s presentation. So by popular demand, you can now view them here. Attended Mobile 2.0 and have feedback or questions for us? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

Last week we announced that Taptu now powers itsmy.com’s search box, and we saw the news spread around the web. After over a year of providing a search service directly to our users, it’s with great pride that we take on the challenge of helping new partners give their users the best search experience possible.

Here are a few highlights of the coverage:

• New Media Age, Mobile social network drops Google as search provider
• Washington Post, Mobile Content Bits: Taptu Search; Huffpost Mobile; MMS From MBlox; Pepsi Widget; Content In Russia
• AltSearchEngines, Mobile Search itsmy.com selects Taptu
• Media Bistro, itsmy, Taptu Team on Mobile Social Search
• Wireless and Mobile News, itsmy.com Taps Taptu for Mobile Search
• TMCNet, itsmy.com Selects Taptu to Better Serve its Growing Mobile Community

If you own a mobile site and would like to use Taptu to power your search, why not get in touch with us on partners@taptu.com today?

It’s with great pleasure that we can announce today that Taptu will be the steam to itsmy’s engine. itsmy.com is one of the largest global mobile communities, with over 2 million users, and adding Taptu’s search functionality will give its users a rich mobile search experience that allows users to be entertained within their community.

Antonio Vince Staybl, CEO at itsmy.com says, “We wanted to work with a company that really ‘gets’ mobile and understands that desktop search isn’t mobile search. Taptu is made for mobile and we love its unique and social way to search the mobile web. That’s exactly what we were looking for in a partner and that’s why we have replaced our existing provider.”

You’ll find the full press release here as well as our contact details for more information on this new and exciting partnership.