I just did a QIK demonstrating the speed of my 3UK mobile broadband modem (get one at three.co.uk). Particularly relevant after today’s story about the average speed of mobile broadband services being around 1.4mbps.

Here I am sat in Earls Court 2 amidst thousands of folk using their mobiles:

Just picked this one up from Broadband Expert. They’ve done a load of research testing out the speeds of mobile broadband connections. Have a read..

Research by broadband comparison site keyword or Broadband Expert has revealed that the average speed of UK mobile broadband is 1.46Mbs. By comparison earlier surveys by the same company revealed home broadband services deliver average speeds of 2.95Mbs.

The survey carried out between February and March 2008, tested 1,213 mobile broadband connections with top download speeds ranging from 2.3Mbps for Vodafone to 1.1Mbps for T-Mobile and 1Mbps for 3.

Vodafone clocked by far the fastest download speeds, though advertising for their latest offering promise much faster speeds of up to 7.2Mbps (however some of the customers surveyed were on old offers advertising lesser speeds).

The average upload speed for all providers was registered as 0.38Mbps. Upload speed describes the speed that data can be transmitted back to the internet and is important for VoIP (internet phone calls) services such as Skype.

Download speed varied between areas depending on the mobile coverage and the network used, with higher speeds more likely to be achieved in urban areas which have better coverage.

Vodafone comes out pretty well … but not when they’re promising ‘up to 7.2 meg’. Still.

Mobile broadband now *works*. It’s cheap and it’s usable!

Engadget have a few pictures of the new Blackberry 9000 series device — not yet available much much talked about. It looks like they may well have pulled out another stonker. In a few months we’ll know!

My new office is on Marshall Street, parallel to Carnaby Street, London’s hip’n'appenin’ fashion street. I, thus, have cause to walk around the area quite a lot.

Yesterday I was walking by the Orange shop there and thought it was about time I documented the rather fancy screen they’ve got taking up most of the window.

I did you a QIK video, complete with mumbling sound:

The real ARSE with doing QIK videos in public is that people start looking. Within seconds of me streaming live, a little crowd of dumb Londoners had stopped, stared at me, then at what I was ‘filming’ and stopped to watch. In fact if I’d ripped off my clothes and tipped a pot of red paint over myself whilst yelling ‘I LOVE VODAFONE’ repeatedly, I don’t think I’d have attracted so many folk. By the end of my stupid mumbling commentary there were about 9 or 10 folk of varying ‘under 30′ ages, staring with mute attention at me, waiting for me to ‘do something else’.

That’s why I started using this interactive screen then stopped, in short order, after I recognised the crowd I was attracting. You want to be careful, you see, lest some bright spark in some CCTV bureau somewhere send some Police Community Support Officers down to stare at me as well.

It’s pretty neat, the Orange screen. We’re getting near to the Minority Report view of shop advertising, aren’t we? You can manipulate the screen and get information about various Orange services. When the system detects your presence, it says hello and asks you to get involved. No doubt it speaks to you about the services as you’re browsing. I didn’t get that far before I quickly shut off Qik and went about my business.

You know, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t get go and get naked on the beach and kick around some footballs. BUT let’s set’em alight first!

I kid ye not. Dan Lane, one third of the founding trio at Howler Tech is taking a week out up in Whitby. I’ve been there once in the winter and it was not hospitable. Anyway, it looks like it’s a roaring place. For Dan captured the following, via QIK, last night:

Yes. Folk kicking flaming footballs around. I watched avidly. In fact you can actually see my comments there on the video’s page. The streaming was impeccable and maybe 2-3 seconds delayed, good enough for me to be able to ask Dan some questions and for me to hear him answer quickly — kudos to 3UK (I wonder if the local cell tower was particularly unstretched up there in Whitby, I reckon Dan probably increased Whitby 3G traffic for 3UK by about 2,000% last night).

Smart.

Our man on the ground, codename ‘Number Four’, reports from today’s Symbian Partner Event that Matti Vanska of Nokia reckons that, ‘We have the best browser in the industry.’

Discuss.

I could write an essay, I really could!

Yes, SMS. Not short-message-service, but Social-Media-Saturation.

I think we all might well be suffering from this

I got the term thanks to RichContent.

I was off the grid over the weekend otherwise I’d have blogged the news that Phoneboy (Dameon) spotted a hole in his Symbian version of iSkoot that, apparently, sent his Skype username and password in the clear.

Both the iSkoot CEO and CTO rapidly got involved. Dan York published this summary of events — including a swish timeline to demonstrate that — for companies that are listening, rather than ignoring — the blogosphere can be a valuable source of assistance.

Link: Voice of VOIPSA » Blog Archive » Chronology of the blogosphere and iSkoot weekend response to the iSkoot security issue

Given commentary now appearing in the blogosphere around the speed of the response this weekend by both various blogs and also the folks at iSkoot responding to the security issue tracked on this blog, I thought I would take a moment and just capture the chronology of what did occur. (Partly to emphasize what Andy points out in his post today - that the blogosphere can help companies that join in the conversation.) Here’s what I saw - all times converted to Eastern US

After the recent £100 price reduction, UK Apple iPhones (now £169 for the 8GB) are selling like hotcakes. This comes from speaking both with sources familiar with the issue at o2 and numerous Carphone Warehouse representatives (one of whom told me that their London Oxford Street store was clean out of all iPhones and urgently waiting re-supply).

Good news for all those concerned.

Blykwatcher Ricky is back again, over to him.

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Hola readers

Firstly to start of me of this week is a massive well done to the BLYK team for hitting 100,000 members as one of their members from the very start I have been with them through all the troubles but really think the service is doing well, good luck for their next big milestone of launching in the Netherlands with their partner network over there (Vodafone NL). The other massive news to report is that BLYK have now dropped its text tags (this was where there was a small advert on the end of a free sms sent), this is after the members complained heavily. Initially about three months ago they decided to drop the levels instead of every free sms having an advert to about 50%, now they have scrapped them! It’s great to hear BLYK listening to its members!!

Anyways that is enough of my ramblings time to for you to read about the last two weeks with BLYK!

No Messages until the 17th of April

Thursday 17th April 2008

Two brand SMS Messages advertising two films with an option to reply. The Films were Beyond The Rave and Fools Gold. I replied and got 2 MMS’s back with a small clip and a small synopsis of the film. One feature of BLYK I don’t think I have ever talked about is the free reply. There does not seem to a time limit for example BLYK sent me the brand messages at 4pm and I replied at 4am (12 hours later) and still got the brand messages. This I think is quite cool that the limit is not short (i.e. 4 or 5 hours)!

Saturday 19th April 2008

Another Film brand message which I replied to, this time the film was Pathology. I was also sent details about a competition if I used one of my invite codes I would be entered into a draw to win a trip to the US to see a band. Sadly the trip dates are close to my exams, however it sounded like a great completion. What I like about BLYK competitions is that they are generally free to enter!

Sunday 20th April 2008

Sticking on the film theme (god BLYK once you have one idea you defiantly use it to death, remember about those music messages a got a few weeks ago). They sent a SMS with the numbers for Odeon and Cineworld Cinema’s, initially I was sceptical thinking they would not free but lo and behold I can use my free balance on BLYK to ring 0871 numbers! COOL!

Wednesday 23rd April 2008

BLYK hits 100,000 members today and to celebrate in celebration they are running another competition for 10 people to win 10,000 texts. All I had to do was guess how many members there would be at midnight! 1,000 texts wow that is a lot about 33 a day for 10 months!

Thursday 24th April 2008

BLYK sends out another competition this one linking back to the advert on the 19th it asked for people to review the film in 1 sms! Sadly I have not seen it so I could not enter!

Saturday 26th April

Another film message from BLYK (surely not) , however this time the brand SMS was quite cool as it let me have the option of picking 1 of 3 films and they replied with a review in conjunction with Total Film! Wicked as one of the options was The Eye, sadly the review did not come back to good, I think I am going to have to check out some more reviews before I go and see it!

Saturday 26th April

A received a very random message from BLYK asking which was my favourite chocolate bar, I replied with Mars and they sent me a recipe for a mars smoothie recipe! Very odd, a profiling question I think!! I also received a MMS advert from the metro about a news story with option to click through onto the mobile version of their site, guess what it wasn’t free so I could not click through! Shame Really!

My usual round up, I am sure some of you reading from two weeks ago will want to know if I used that Lucozade coupon sadly I struggled with finding a place that understood how to process the voucher or had the product in stock! Such a real shame as I was excited, some people looked at me as if I was crazy, I have now simply given up trying! It was a shame really, as the idea of a voucher on my phone was such a great idea!

I usually whinge about the lack of data and the usual comments still stand, however I have a new comment to put to BLYK!

POST-PAY (or to us here in the UK contracts), obviously it would have to be over 18’s. As you know my main number is for a FLEXT contract from T-Mobile, a contract is something I cannot do without, I need the flexibility that it offers, however if BLYK could offer a competitive deal with FLEXT (T-mobile) or Mix n Match (3), I would be very tempted!!!

The reverse also applies if T-Mobile wants to start competing with BLYK, then I would be very excited (or I can wait until pigs start flying whichever comes first!)

My final point to leave you with is basically I am LOVING BLYK! Ok there are elements that annoy me but BLYK is exciting, you are thinking how can a mobile network be exciting? and in all honesty I have no idea but I will leave you with this how many people do you know tell you they LOVE their network? Not many I’d bet, so surely BLYK is doing something right and I would think the other 99,999 members of this service would agree with me!

It looks like China really has done it: after seemingly never-ending delays, according to local news service Xinhua, China has now got its 3G service up and running in just a matter of months and yes, it will be ready for the influx of visitors for the Olympics later this year.

China Mobile is giving away 15,000 3G handsets to Olympics officials and 3 million yuan of call credit to boot, says Xinhua. They’ll be able to get the higer-speed TD-SCDMA connection in eight cities, five of which will be hosting the Olympics.

China Mobile first started testing the service back in April - it’s amazing that it will go from pilot to full launch within four months. Some people take that long to test an application, not an entire network. Or am I being too optimistic - is a short testing period likely to signify a network that hasn’t had all the gruelling testing it needs?

Mobile payments company Obopay has nabbed a four round of funding worth $20 million from the likes of Essar Communications Holdings Limited, leading the round and existing investors including Citi, Societe Generale, Qualcomm, and Promethean and new investors like Olayan America Corporation also joined in.

The company is mainly a North American-based venture - it lists Verizon Wireless and Helio among its partners - and its mobile money transfer system works with US bank accounts using a widget, through a browser or SMS. While the company hasn’t given away what it plans to do with the latest round of investments, international expansion shouldn’t be ruled out - Obopay has a presence in India and a number of big names are falling over themselves to bring mobile money transfer to developing economies.

Buzzd, which specialises in location-based city guides and social networking, has reeled in its first round of investment led by Greycroft Partners and Monitor Ventures but so far hasn’t put a figure on the funding.

Buzzd says it’s going to put the funding towards “product development and distribution” and will get a new board member in the form of Fern Mandelbaum of Monitor.

What’s clever about Buzzd is that, as well as delivering all the usual city guide info from the likes of Time Out, it also makes use of social networking techniques to give users reviews on bars and the like from their friends - and who do you trust more to send you to a good bar than your mates? It’s also done a tie-up with a tequila firm, so users can even send their friends free drinks - nice touch.

It’s the end of day 2 with my new Nokia Ovi-equipped phone. Over the next fortnight I’ll be giving the various services a workout, but this time it’s just about first impressions.

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Ever since I first posted about it I’ve wanted to take a proper look at the Ovi services- Nokia’s online service offerings for media sharing, gaming, music and maps - as a complete unit, but unlike many other contributors I’m not a daily N-Series user or even equipped with a camera in my S60 device, so the nice people at WOM World have leant me an N81 8GB and a set of bluetooth headphones to give it a work-over.  There’s no conditions or talking points - just a device capable of running all the services on my everyday tariff.

Talking of the hardware, whilst this isn’t the focus of the article, I should give some background… Launched mid-2007 the N81 8GB is by no means a class-leading device - it’s bested by the N95 and N82 easily on specs - but launched at the same time as Nokia’s music store with dedicated music and gaming keys and it’s obviously intended to complement these services.  The large internal storage is well suited to media use and the built-in stereo speakers are also strong indicators of its intended use. The H903 headset (a pendant-syle) features a similar keypad layout and finish and looks a good way to test the music services.

Unboxing the handset, as ever, it’s good to note that the Nokia automatically notes the network I am connected to and sets up the data and MMS access points automatically.  Similarly, the download icon on the main menu presents a nicely familiar list of S60 applications and I quickly download a few old favourites I can’t be without - Ovi aside, this will be my main handset for the next 2 weeks.  So far so good - I’m up and running with minimal fuss.

It’s not all good news though, the gloss plastic feels cheap and hollow - disappointingly so for a handset at the more expensive end of the market - and the many, poorly distinguished buttons on the front fail the ‘girlfriend test’ early on.  The presentation is confused and a bit intimidating - with a little explanation (in lieu of reading he manual) she happily navigates the main menus, but it’s too easy to hit the small silver media button and switch the view to a completely different view.

Ready to try some Ovi I search the device for a menu… nothing.  I look through the ‘downloads’ and ‘catalogue’ items… nothing.  Oh well… I suppose the service is still in beta, but I expected Nokia to be pushing it a bit more.  ‘Beta’ is a tag we’re all used to seeing on everyday web services, but I guess this is staying below the radar despite the bells and whistles launch.  No problem, I open the phone’s browser and navigate to www.ovi.com speculatively having seen the full-browser version.  That does the trick and although the main site is a bit light on details that I’d like I find a link to the N-Gage gaming site, create a login and download the client.

I’ve not been a regular gamer for many years, so am a bit apprehensive, but N-Gage immediately feels like a well polished product.  From within a single well-presented client I’m able to create my profile to utilise the social features and browse a catalogue of games.  There’s some big names listed with current titles and everything is available for a trial play.  I’m really surprised by the quality of some of the titles - it’s not going to embarrass a dedicated handheld but the responsiveness and video quality is much better than I would have expected.  Even my first game of Tetris for a good few years is well presented and makes good use of the dedicated gaming keys on the ear-piece which feel well placed and make gaming an involving two handed process.  I can see myself ditching some of the usual video podcasts on the train next week and getting back to  few games.  Kudos Nokia.

The other feature I decide to try out at a friend’s party is the photo sharing feature.  Before I leave home I access it via the Ovi website again and am disappointed to note that one of the earliest criticisms - the need for separate accounts for all of the services - is still the case… when you have a name as common popular as ‘Smith’ finding something consistent and memorable can be tricky!  Still, the process is slick and the site itself feels very simiar to Flickr.  I note it’s still using the Twango (pre Nokia aquisition) name despite the Ovi branding.  Over the course of the night I snap away pictures and am impressed to see the Share application will use Flickr and Vox as well.  Less good is the need to individually upload each image as taken.  It works, but during the evening the process begins to grate.  The image quality of the 2MP camera is also really poor - the phone has a bright flash, but it doesn’t seem to be able to use it well.  I ditch all of the pictures I take during the evening - in the poor light of the bar they’re worthless and pixelated.  The next day I take a few snaps in good daylight - these are better and it’s nice to be able to select the public or private channels for sharing from the phone with a greater range of embed codes than Flickr.  However, long-term I’m not sure I could live with the click-intensive client… we’ll see.

This morning I quickly played with the music store as I sat on the train.  However, of the free tracks available, only one would download and the clumsy client together with Shaggy informing me that it is a ‘mad mad world’ was enough for me to decide to give up and look at that more closely later…. not a good start though.  Sound quality through the buetooth headphones was very impressive though.

—-

More as it comes during the weeks.  Please let me know if there’s any features or questions you’re particularly interested in via the comments!

Ewan sent me this link today.

Well, things are looking up for Rogers customers. Word on the street has it that the Nokia N95 is due to hit Rogers’ GSM network on May 2. The Canada-bound variant of the Nokia N95 should hit market sporting the same 5 megapixel camera, GPS receiver, WiFi, TV-out, and 3G HSDPA data connection that the US enjoys. And, with the help of Rogers, the Nokia N95 should be able to make use of its video call camera.

Pricing for the Nokia N95 on Rogers is reported to hit $699 without contract.

And, all you Canadian iPhone hopefuls (those of you that haven’t already jumped across the border for an unlocked iPhone) may soon be able to get your hands on a Rogers-locked Apple iPhone in the near future. The Toronto Star cites industry sources as indicating that Rogers is gearing up to launch a touchscreen-based handset campaign with the release of the master of touchscreen handsets, the Apple iPhone. The iPhone’s entry into Canada has been speculated to as being held up by the country’s costly GSM data plans. But, with the launch of the Rogers’ $20 unlimited data plan, the “Communicate Value Pack,” Rogers is believed to be preparing to receive the heralded iPhone.

Ok good, good. A year too late but hey. It’s about time someone clued in. Honestly, it’s getting to the point where if I see one more person with a RAZR and they think it’s top of the line I’m going to scream.

There is better out there people! SEE!

Ok so it’s not great, I know you’re sitting there going “ahh but we already have those and have had them forever” yes i know, but baby steps, right direction and all eh?

And they have to introduce the unlimited data, they have to. (Although $20/month is too much, hello! Bell is doing it for $7, although only with the Touch.) you can’t give someone a phone like this and not give them unlimited data.

“Here you go sir, here’s your top of the line BMW with power windows and GPS and leather and heated seats and this and that, but you’re only allowed to drive it and not touch anything. Yes that’s right, only drive, don’t touch any buttons. Roll the windows down by hand and oh, here’s a map.”

Fingers crossed.

That’s us on 250,000 readers a month, or thereabouts.

We’re averaging at least 150,000 unique hosts, 320,000 visits and almost 1.5m page impressions each month. How do I get to 250,000 readers? Well, it’s a bit made up. It’s guesswork.

A real issue for me are the countless databases and intranets that re-purpose the SMS Text News feed. I’ve no problem with this (apart from the annoying sites that take our content and pretend it’s their own) — the feed is full and freely available to use — the real problem is trying to count just who’s reading.

Many companies, for example, rip the feed once internally (that shows, to me, as one viewer) and then splice it out to hundreds of employees (or, in one case I know of, a few thousand). That’s great! It’s just counting that’s an arse.

The way I manage this is to do an approximation. Double it. Or double-and-a-half. Something like that.

So if you’re splitting hairs, we’ve got 150,000 unique visitors to the site. That is something that I’m thoroughly delighted with. Way back in 1999 with a $1m investment, we managed to get around 150,000 unique visitors per month for our independent entertainment site! Anyway, if you’re comfortable recognising that our feed is being repurposed all across the web, then join me in the 250,000 readers club.

Thank you all for reading. I most sincerely appreciate your attention. I am working hard to try and respond to your email in a timely manner. This isn’t quite happening, so, if like Chris from the LG Blog last week, you need to get hold of me, don’t hesitate to do it real time by ewanmacleod@gmail.com, ewansms@googlemail.com (on Google Talk) or ewanjmacleod on Skype.

Thank you to the team of contributors (regular and occasional) — I thoroughly enjoy your input. In no particularly order, I’m sure you’re valuing Julia’s three mobile industry stories every morning, Whatley’s weekly mobile viewpoint, Jonathan Jensen’s regular perspective, Mr BlykWatch (Ricky), Ben Smith’s in-depth views and our Youth Correspondent, Issah. And of course operations manager, Krystal. Whom, if you can’t get me, is far more organised and contactable on krystal@smstextnews.com.

And finally, as you know, SMS Text News is part funded by me and part advertiser funded. For, almost a year Clickatell have been a brilliant supporter. Thank you first to Clickatell’s Stefano Sessa (now working at Modu) for taking the time to identify SMS as a good source of mobile industry developers and executives and more recently to Clickatell’s Storm Buckingham and the rest of the Clickatell team. I very much appreciate their support.

Thank you to Patrick Smith and Martin Smith (they’re not brothers!) at telecoms PR behemoth Sonus / Frith PR for their support for numerous Unlimited Drinks events.

In recent weeks, Clickatell has been joined by Esendex (look right, you’ll see their ad for the Esendex Developer Competition). Thank you to MD Adam Bird and Marketing Manager, Ann Wilkinson.

If you’ve got an opportunity to do business with Clickatell, Sonus PR or Esendex, please do view them positively and invite them to the pitch. If you’d like a direct intro, please email me and I’ll sort it out.

Alas I was working. Blogging away here. I didn’t get the opportunity to sit down and waste 60 minutes — or, er, 40-odd minutes with the balance spent watching inane advertising — on viewing Channel4’s latest docutainment show, Dispatches.

Titled ‘The Great Mobile Rip Off’, it claimed to be ready to expose, shock and generally appall the viewing public.

Did it?

Well I’m sure they took a good swing at it. Based on the real-time feedback from some of the mobile industry’s great and good, it seems they failed miserably.

I know one operator that was seriously unimpressed at the way the show’s producer arsed about with them. The producer reportedly sent a list of ‘accusations’ by registered delivery to the operator. Then demanded an immediate response … a few weeks later. When the operator challenged them to produce proof of delivery (the operator couldn’t find any record of recieving any ‘accusations’), the producer was apparently unable to answer. Ridiculous. The operator then offered a spokesperson to put their (and the industry’s) side. No. Too late. We’re going to air. That was, I’m told, the response. Silly.

I saw a list of accusations. None of them new. All of them with a decent explanation. This is the sort of television programme that should have been made and aired years ago when there really WAS a great mobile rip off.

You can read the shock and horror trail here. (”Barnett reveals how the influence of the networks … stretches to the heart of the Government” — hardly surprising for one of the country’s largest tax-paying industries. Bet Tesco employs lobbyists.)

Pat Phelan, one of the go-to-guys when it comes to trying to do anything in the mobile world, wasn’t at all impressed at the show, commenting:

“People who know nothing about mobiles, shouldn’t be allowed to tell people who know a little about mobile anything”

Our very own Whatleydude was going nuts on Twitter. I asked what he felt:

Y’know that million monkeys and million typewriters thing? Well this is one monkey… Feel like gouging my eyes out with rusty spoons…

Did you watch? What d’ya reckon?

And now, time for some GOOD news. Yes!

Four years ago, reports the Electric Newspaper in Singapore, a nurse hit the headlines after she was dumped via text message at the altar by the groom. Deary me.

Her then-fiance, Kedah striker Hasmawi Hassan, had sent her a text message that the wedding was not going to happen.

Her plight hit the headlines.

On Saturday, the 27-year-old nurse was back in the news, for a happier reason.

She had found love again and married Mr Mohd Zaini Mohd Salim of Kampung Parit Kudus, Pontian.

Woo huu. Congratulations Mrs Salim!

Link: » Now track Kerala private buses via Internet, SMS - Thaindian News

Commuters in Kerala will by next month be able to track any of the 30,000 private buses that ply on the state roads either via the Internet or through mobile phones. Chennai-based Dhanus Technologies Ltd, an alternative telecommunications service provider, earlier this month inked a memorandum of understanding with the 20,000-strong Kerala State Private Bus Operators Federation and has finalised a deal with the 10,000-strong All Kerala Bus Operators Organisation.

People will now be able to know where one’s bus has reached and how long it will take to reach their stop just through a simple SMS.

This is already available in the UK*. It was really easy for the developers to create. If you text STATUS to 81011, the system simply replies — right-away — with:

There will be one along in a minute.

*OK so I’m being a bit rude. That last bit was made up.

Link: Nationmedia.com | Daily Nation | NEWS | SMS comes in handy to effect industrial action

Prison warders across the country have turned to mobile phone technology to rally their colleagues at the country’s prisons to push the Government to address their grievances.

Through short text messages circulated to all warders at all penal institutions in the country, the warders have vowed to down their tools Monday if their grievances are not addressed.

I wonder precisely how they’re delivering this. Perhaps a one-to-one group discussion system like ZygoHubs (introduced today) might not be what you need when you’re planning industrial action.

I always half-enjoy Twitter. Sometimes it’s brilliant, sometimes it really, really, really winds me up.

I’ve got it enabled so that I get updates on my Google instant messenger. I couldn’t cope with 250 texts every few days on my phone. The real issue, I find, is context.

Take, for example, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. I thoroughly enjoy getting an insight into what he’s thinking, what he’s doing and so on. However it’s really difficult to follow, thus:

There is little value to me in knowing that Michael thinks that Kingmanor has made a fair point. I don’t know what the point is. And I can’t be bothered to go searching to find out because I’m in the middle of working.

So. Who’s problem is this? Well, it’s not Michael’s. It’s not Kingmanor’s. They, and I daresay a few other people are entertained, enlightened or excited by that comment.

It’s my problem. I just don’t understand it. At this level, then, my interaction with Twitter becomes highly offensive — in the context of carrying out my work day. Much like a telephone call, many of my Twitter messages are becoming interruptive rather than incidentally useful.

Then again, could this be a problem for Michael? I don’t know. Potentially.

It’s all about how you use Twitter. For example, I only ever use Twitter (my Twitter account) to send out blog post updates or to deliver updates that I hope my followers find of some (small) value. Each Tweet is a package in itself — it can be understood irrespective of whether you ‘know’ me or not.

Just now, I got an update from Mashable:

mashable: Akoha Raises $1.9M to ‘Play it Forward’ ( http://tinyurl.com/5oehum )

There’s enough information in that Tweet to enable me to evaluate it correctly and do something about it. I got value from that message. I didn’t get any value from Michael’s ‘That’s a fair comment’ message. If anything, I felt outside the game.

This is a Twitter-wide issue and certainly not just related to Michael at TechCrunch. I’d welcome your perspective.

Is my 1990s brain misconfigured for dealing with this level of continual information flow?

Internet World is fast approaching — tomorrow, in fact. I’m popping down there to do a few interviews and have a look around.

The Wapple chaps, the go-to-guys if you’re looking for help creating a mobile internet offering, have created a swish looking mobile internet version of the main Internet World site. I haven’t looked at it with my Nokia yet, but having looked at it with my online browser, I reckon it’ll look fantastic.

Here’s a screenshot:

I’ll give this a go when I’m on the show floor.

James Whatley just put this up over on his personal blog and while it’s not exactly Whatley Wednesday material, (nor is it, in fact, Wednesday), I still thought I’d publish this piece of comedy for your viewing pleasure:

Over to you Whatley:

____________________________________

That up there ^ is my friend’s iPhone, last week after his dog had got hold of it. Ouch.
Cue much laughter, finger pointing and merriment at his expense.
The iPhone’s screen is strong. But it seems it isn’t that strong…

‘Dave’ is a bit upset about this (I’ve changed his name to save him further embarrassment)

*giggle*

Anyway - after snapping that pic I asked ‘Dave’ if I could blog it, “Sure..” he said, “…and I’ll update you too.”

“Update?”

“Yep. Get this…”

Turns out, after the aforementioned mauling, Dave tried to claim on his home contents insurance. Note: ‘Tried’.
He has since discovered that he can’t actually claim ‘accidental damage’ as the dog did it deliberately.

(clearly a Nokia fan then)

After that Dave tried to claim it on his business insurance. Still no dice. Thing is, this policy doesn’t cover ‘phones‘.
It covers PDAs. Dave is trying to claim the iPhone is a PDA -

“…which it is!” Dave tells me…

However, the insurance company have never had a claim for an iPhone before and what with it having the word ‘Phone’ in its name, Dave’s hitting another brick wall.

Double Ouch.

Insurance companies can be tough little beggars at the best of times (trust me - I know) but are they in the right in this instance?

Is the iPhone a PDA? Or is it a Phone?

‘Dave’ sold his dog over the weekend.. and I am really, REALLY not kidding.
He was that upset.

So much for man’s best friend…

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Looks like the SMS Text News Curse is contagious!

Well this isn’t news, really.

It is a confirmation.

I’ve known it for a while. I’ve been using the likes of Nimbuzz or Agile Mobile Messenger for a long time now, rather than sending text messages.

Let’s be clear: I still value text. But for longer, mobile conversations, I much prefer IM. Have a look at these stats published by Cellular News:

Instant Messaging Via Mobile Set to Challenge SMS Traffic

Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) is set to cannibalise SMS (texting) and eventually email from PC, a survey from TNS Technology has found. The TNS Global Telecoms Insight (GTI) study, which interviewed 17,000 respondents across 30 countries, has found that once mobile users adopt MIM it overtakes other messaging tools to become the primary non-voice method of interacting – with potentially dramatic consequences for service and network providers’ revenue.

Among those who use MIM, it is the most used feature on their phone: 61% use it daily, compared to only 55% who use SMS daily and only 12% who use email on their mobile.

Instant messaging is also taking a larger share of all messaging communications. In fact MIM has become so popular, that now 11 out of every 100 messages sent by mobile devices or fixed PC globally are instant messages. However, among MIM users 36 out of every 100 messages sent is an Instant Message by their mobile, making this the dominant messaging form for these users. The number of messages sent via SMS falls dramatically among MIM users from 38 to only 23 messages per 100. Surprisingly, MIM users also use fixed email less with 21 out of every 100 messages sent via this medium, compared to 31 messages among all consumers.

Link: Pinoy Twitterers launch their own sms service

Philippine fans of Twitter had a hard time with the international SMS cost as we all do. Twitter only provides US, Canada, India and UK numbers for inbound SMS and the cost of these are quite prohibitive.

Pat caught this one earlier. Smart. Some inventive Philippine users of Twitter have knocked up an interface enabling the transmission of international text messages via the service for next to nothing.

I haven’t heard of something similar in the UK but it’s certainly possible — maybe something that could be entered into the upcoming Esendex Developer Competition.