According to the Telegraph, this week is non-work week in the United Kingdom. The survey reckoned that…

One in three employees - an estimated nine million people - will ”mentally switch off” for Christmas at 5pm on Friday and do virtually no work next week.

Instead they will pass the nine to five routine on office gossip, long lunches, shopping trips and looking for holiday destinations for next year.

But what about SMS Text News readers?

Well do you remember I posed a question to you all a while back? Here’s what I asked:

Over this Christmas, will you be checking your emails?

Tons of people voted. Here are the results:

- Yes, via my Blackberry 16%
- Yes, via my mobile phone 32%
- Yes, via my computer 33%
- No way, I’ll be relaxing! 17%

Dear me. Only 17% of us will be relaxing. The rest of us are going to be prodding at least one technical device to check our emails over the period.

Interesting to see that 48% of us will do the checking on some kind of mobile device. Much better than lugging around a laptop or constantly going and sitting down at your desktop PC whilst the rest of the family enjoys Mary Poppins on TV for the 28th year straight.

Christmas is one of the most productive times of the year for me as I tend to receive less emails, ergo I’m able to make a good stab at answering tons. It’s not good when I start finding emails back from January this year that I haven’t yet responded to though.

(I got the above photo from Escobar’s Highland Farm page… if I could buy a Christmas tree that looked just like that, complete with snow, I’d have it right here in my apartment.)

The wonders of modern search technology through up the most interesting results now and again. Previously, SMS Text News was number one across MSN & Yahoo for searching ‘dond’ (”deal or no deal”). I had hundreds of “I pick box 4″ or “Can I be on your show” messages posted to my blog about the TV programme in America launching SMS interactivity.

Most recently, I’ve found that if you search Yahoo for ‘Sending Nude Pics Over Cellphone‘, at the top you’ll get a post I wrote about a teen obtaining an injunction against the sending of nude pics an ex boyfriend took of her. (at least via Yahoo UK anyway).

Therefore for all those visiting, I’d like you to review the following sending-nude-pics-by-mobile best practice tips for the benefit of us all: -

1. If it’s digital, it can be copied. This is a critical point: within seconds of recording, the image or video can be transmitted worldwide to millions of people. You could get more exposure than dear old Paris Hilton’s had in the last 10 years, in 24 hours with Youtube.

2. Verify the recipient. Be careful to whom you address the picture/video message. If you’re a frequent swapper, consider adding a new address at the bottom of your phone book prefixed with ‘ZZ’ … so you don’t send the content to Kevin Your Boss rather than Kevin From The Bar Last Night.

3. Naked photos. If you’re going to take naked pictures, avoid including your face or similar distinguishing features. A naked nipple may well excite your partner, but it’s fairly harmless if posted on the college billboard. Key point: no one knows it’s you. Even if someone’s written ‘THIS IS KELLY’S NIPPLE’ underneath… says who? Plausible deniability.

4. Naked videos. Similarly with videos, avoid making a video diary whilst engaging in activities that you wouldn’t necessarily want your mother to see if she were to mistakenly click on the adult section of Youtube.

5. Data archiving. Take care of your mobile. Your content is safe while in your custody, but should you leave the handset in the back of a taxi, your content is more or less public property. Look for your images shortly on various shady websites. Likewise, ensure that anyone receiving your content takes similar precautions. Avoid giving your handset to your local phone shop to repair without first removing those pictures and THAT video.

If you can think of any more, please add below.

Ever remember the movie Speed?

"Pop quiz, hot shot: There’s a bomb on a bus. The bus goes over
fifty-five miles per hour, the bomb is armed; it drops below
fifty-five, the bomb goes off. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?"

Well
I’ve decided to give myself my very own pop quiz today featuring
Orange.  I picked them at random. A while ago I was out shopping with a
good girl friend of mine when we walked past the Vodafone store.  With
an absend mind she said "oh, I’m out of contract, I need to get an
upgrade at some point."  I was shocked that she hadn’t sorted it out
pronto.  So I marched her straight in and began the geeky delightful
task that is analysing the various phones available and deciding which
one you’d have, if you could.  This is the basis of the quiz I’ve set
myself.

The pop quiz is this:  If you needed a new phone, AND you had
to buy it from Orange, what would you buy? Money, service plans et al
isn’t an issue, it’s the choice that counts.

Hmmm.

1. I visit here: http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/phones
2. I click pay monthly, obviously, because I want them to fund the up front cost
3. Oh now the choice begins here:

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/handsets/pay_monthly/all/all

C600 maybe? The Windows Mobile phone?  I have a soft spot for
ActiveSync.  Although now Nokia have properly fixed their synching with
the N series, hmmmm.  Quite like that ultra slim Motorola but it’s got
hardly any of the features I demand.

You know what I’m really struggling.  I don’t see anything I like.

Fast forward 10 minutes.  I’ve looked at everything.

Ok, if you positively force me to make a decision I’d go for the Treo 650
for a number of reasons.  First, I’ve never had one before, second,
people who I know have them and swear by them and third, well, I’m a
sucked for new gadgets to play with.

The PalmOne Treo 650 - an all-in-one phone, camera and MP3 player -
gives you access to the web, email and Word or Excel documents, as well
as a host of Palm OS® business applications.

Totally wrong choice?  There’s hardly anything new out on their online shop worth looking at I reckon.